With a heatwave, floods, and landslides all occurring in the same year, "extreme weather events" are no longer a distant phenomenon in Tamil Nadu.
In October, Madurai experienced massive single-day rainfall; in November, a cloudburst struck the drought-prone Ramanathapuram district; Thiruvannamalai, typically not considered a landslide-prone area, witnessed its worst landslide; and in September, Madurai airport recorded unprecedented heat. These are just a few examples of the extreme weather events increasingly affecting the state.
In fact, climate extremes have come to centre stage with Chief Minister M K Stalin stating 'the impacts of natural disasters' as one of the three primary challenges being faced by Tamil Nadu. The other two being the rising elderly population and new needs posed by rapid urbanisation.
The Tamil Nadu CM, who made the statement in a meeting with the chairperson and members of the XVI Finance Commission on November 18, had pressed for recommendations from the Commission to ensure sufficient funds to state governments to undertake relief and restoration measures.
On October 25, Madurai received a massive 9.5 cm of rainfall in a single day. 4.5 cm poured within 15 minutes between 3 pm and 3.15 pm. It triggered severe flooding, water inundation, and power disruption.
On November 20, Cloudburst, categorised as an 'extreme weather event,' triggered over 28 cm of rainfall in Pamban in the Ramanathapuram district.
Pamban weather station recorded 10 cm of rainfall in just an hour and close to 19 cm of rainfall within a short span of three hours.
An unprecedented 164 cm of rain lashed all pockets of the Ramanathapuram district in a single day (November 20). It is said that this is the first time in many decades that the region has recorded such an amount of rainfall.
In general, Ramanathapuram is a drought-prone district known for its hot, dry weather conditions for most part of the year. Drinking water scarcity is still a pertinent issue in the district.
On December 1, incessant and heavy rains due to Cyclone Fenegal triggered a massive landslide in Annamalaiyar Hills in Thiruvannamalai district, killing seven of a family, including five children.
However, Tiruvannamalai district does not fall under a landslide-prone zone.
The Madurai airport, which already saw an all-time record for September at 40.6 degrees Celsius on 12th and 14th, again experienced a blazing hot day on Monday (September 16, 2024).
"Besides Nilgiris, only Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, Vellore, Dindigul (Kodaikanal hills), and Theni had the problem of landslides," ENVIS TN Centre website states. The landslide incidence map under the Vulnerability Atlas of India (2019) brought out by the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council ( BMTCP) infers landslides to have occurred only in the Nilgiris and Theni districts.
This monsoon, Thoothukudi is the only district in the negative band with an -8 percent departure from normal rainfall for the period between October 1 and December 28, as per IMD cumulative rainfall data.
However, last year, on Christmas Eve, between December 17-18, Kayalpattinam in Thoothukudi recorded 95 cm of rainfall (higher than the districts' annual rainfall) in just 24 hours.
The historic rainfall triggered massive floods that brought the city to a standstill. Crops over 1,48,037 hectares were damaged. The floods submerged Eral town, a key commercial centre and wholesale sale market, under 15-20 feet of water. All goods were destroyed, crashing the hopes the traders had pinned for Christmas.
Thoothukudi's salt industry was severely hit as close to 6 lakh tonnes of salt worth 100 crore were washed away.
Even as a year has passed, the district is yet to fully recover from the loss it faced.
From 95 cm of rainfall in a single day in 2023 to -8 per cent departure from normal in 2024, Thoothukudi is a prime example of stark year-over-year weather variations.
When asked about downpours often bringing the cities to their knees, meteorologist and former director of area cyclone warning centre, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai SR Ramanan simply said, "If it rains, it rains!".
Stressing that weather events are beyond control, he expressed that it is only 'adaptation and mitigation' that we should look out for.
"Designing climate-resilient buildings, encouraging the creation of water bodies in large office/educational campuses, and using public transport are a few to list," he said.
Not just the rains, but the summer was no different in wreaking havoc.
During the April and May months of 2024, 16 districts of Tamil Nadu consistently recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. (IMD declares a heat wave if the maximum temperature recorded at a station is 40 degrees Celsius or more in the plains.)
While only April-May months are known for soaring temperatures, unusual heatwave-like conditions swept the state in September too.
On September 5, Madurai airport recorded a heat of 40.80 degrees Celsius, an all-time high record for September.
On September 15, the Nungambakkam weather station in Chennai registered 38.2 degrees Celsius temperature. The all-time high record for September in the station was 38.9 degrees Celsius (September 19, 1883).
Nagapattinam, Kodaikanal, Adirampattinam and Salem also recorded excess temperatures above normal.
Following this, the state government declared heat wave as a state-specific disaster.
It also announced that the kin of those who die from heat waves, including relief workers/individuals involved in preparedness, would receive an ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh.
Classification of heatwaves as a state-specific disaster is vital as it paves the way for the TN government to take financial aid from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) as 10 percent of the fund can be used to address state-specific disasters.
A report titled Beating The Heat—Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy' by the State Planning Commission revealed, "Studies indicate that the temperatures and heat stress are likely to increase drastically in the coming years in the state. Between 2011 and 2021, Tamil Nadu has on an average witnessed more than eight heatwave (HW) days a year, as reported by India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) (2022)."
"The state faces an increased number of heat stress days, notably from March to August, with a rising trend in heatwaves observed from 1961 to 2021 (MoES). More recently, from 2021 to 2023, it recorded an annual average of 300 discomfort days, resulting in a daily productivity decline of three to four hours," the report added.
Regional climate models point out a possible rise in temperature in the future.
PRECIS regional climate model indicated that the maximum temperature over Tamil Nadu may increase by about 3.1 degrees Celsius with a general maximum increase of 3.3–3.5 degrees Celsius over the western zone and minimum temperature by about 3.5 degrees Celsius.
S Balachandran, Director of the Chennai Regional Meteorological Centre, said, "With more data and more analysis, multiscale weather interactions can be well-studied."
Pradeep John, a weather forecasting enthusiast and blogger, popularly known as the 'weatherman of Tamil Nadu' shared his views on the extreme events scenario.
"Of all events, the Pamban cloudburst is a very rare and strange one. It was neither due to a cyclone nor due to a low-pressure system. It was purely the upper air circulation dumping rains," he noted. He added that for the past four years, it was only the slow-moving pressure systems that brought much rain to the state.
Talking about the severe heat-wave days this year, he attributed it to the global phenomenon of the El Niño to La Niña transition.
Climate change is posing the threat of increased probability in the frequency and intensity of natural hazards. Vulnerable sections of the society are primarily affected by the weather severity hitting livelihood. Health, sanitation, crop productivity, habitats, and coastal ecosystems are facing the brunt.
With reports, models, and experts already suggesting that the extreme weather events are only to aggravate, precise prediction, prompt information relay, effective disbursal of funds and better coordination in relief and rescue operations become more pivotal now than ever before.