Major landslides shook the mountainous area of Meppadi in Kerala’s Wayanad district on Tuesday morning after heavy rains. At least 106 people died, 128 were injured, and hundreds more were thought to be trapped.
A renowned climate scientist has issued a warning, stating that the creation of deep cloud formations due to the warming of the Arabian Sea may cause unusually heavy rainfall in Kerala in a shorter amount of time and increase the risk of landslides.
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This concerning revelation comes after a string of landslides in the steep areas of Wayanad district caused by intense rain, which have killed at least 45 people and left many more feared trapped beneath the debris.
Director of the Cochin University of Science and Technology’s (CUSAT) Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research, S. Abhilash, stated that the active monsoon offshore trough that has affected the entire Konkan region for the past two weeks has resulted in significant rainfall in the states of Kasargod, Kannur, Wayanad, Calicut, and Malappuram.
“The soil was already saturated from continuous rainfall, and the formation of a deep mesoscale cloud system off the coast of the Arabian Sea on Monday triggered localized landslides in Wayanad, Calicut, Malappuram, and Kannur,” Abhilash said in a PTI interview.
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Abhilash drew parallels between the current cloud formations and those seen during the catastrophic floods in Kerala in 2019, emphasizing that the recent weather patterns could signal a similar risk. Scientists have observed a trend in the development of very deep cloud systems over the southeast Arabian Sea, which occasionally intrude inland, similar to the events of 2019.
“The increasing warmth of the southeast Arabian Sea is destabilizing the atmosphere above, contributing to the formation of these deep clouds. This atmospheric instability, linked to climate change, has shifted the rain-bearing belt southward, moving away from its historical zone in the northern Konkan region,” explained Abhilash.
As the intensity of rainfall increases, the likelihood of landslides in the high to mid-land slopes of the Western Ghats in eastern Kerala also rises during the monsoon season, according to the findings from their study.
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In terms of immediate weather conditions, the IMD reported that several automatic weather stations across the districts of Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, Malappuram, and Ernakulam recorded rainfall measurements ranging from 19 cm to 35 cm.
“Many IMD automatic weather stations in the affected areas documented rainfall exceeding 24 cm within 24 hours, with some farmer-installed stations recording over 30 cm,” Abhilash noted.
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