India Could Experience Flash Droughts

• 27 Jan 2021

A recent study has pointed out that India could experience more flash droughts by the end of this century.

What are Flash Droughts?

• Flash droughts are those that occur very quickly, with soil moisture depleting rapidly. Normally, developing drought conditions take months, but these happen within a week or in two weeks’ time.

Causes

• Several factors including atmospheric anomalies, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions play an important role.
• The ongoing climate change has caused a significant increase in global temperature and this can lead to more and more flash droughts in the coming years.

Implications

• This increased frequency of flash droughts can have deleterious implications for crop production, irrigation demands and groundwater abstraction in India.

What can be done?

• If we can meet the ‘Paris Agreement’ goals and limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C, the numbers and frequency of the projected flash droughts may go down.