In today’s time of rapid climate change and other severe effects of global warming, staying ‘weather wise’ has become almost a necessity. And this is why every now and then researchers, scientists and weathermen keep coming up with other special ways of forecasting weather and staying alert about any bad weather ahead of us. A recent analysis in Sydney has proven that tree-rings can enable scientists to get an insight into the past and forecast extreme weather events.
For instance, tree rings may yield insights into the past 400 years of drought and flood in tropical parts of Queensland, and may help forecast future extreme weather events. And that is why Nathan English, from James Cook Center for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at Sydney, has been working on forecasting the future of flood and drought using multi-century tree-ring and isotope chronologies from the tropics. Tropical trees not only have more annual rings, formed during the wet seasons but the tropical forests are an important part of the global climate systems. Tree-rings, also known as growth rings or annual rings, can be seen in a horizontal cross section cut through the trunk of a tree. The rings result from the change in the tree's speed of growth through the seasons of the year. Usually, one ring marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree. The rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ in a marked way.
Droughts and floods are among the costliest disasters of the world. One of the proposed impacts of climate change is increased climate variability and therefore more extreme events. Governments and businesses, including farmers, and insurers incur the brunt of economic damages of floods and drought. Being able to accurately forecast the frequency and intensity of climate extremes could thus save thousands of lives and millions of bucks. Though it must not be forgotten, to do this, a thorough understanding of the climate system that leads to extreme events, is required.
Jatin Singh CEO of Skymet Weather says, “More of a necessity than ever, weather is our life line in today’s world and a constant effort to be alert and educated about it can help save planet earth”.
Photo by Slim.
