Rainfall likely due to climate change: UN

Geneva, Aug. 29: The volume of rainfall from tropical storm Harvey is probably linked to climate change associated with global warming, which increases the amount ofmoisture in the atmosphere, the U.N. weather agency said on Tuesday.

“Climate change means that when we do have an event like Harvey, the rainfall amounts are likely to be higher than theywould have been otherwise,” Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organisation, told a United Nations briefing in Geneva. “Climate change does very likely increase the associated rainfall,” she said, adding in some locations Harvey’s rainfallmay approach 50 inches and that the U.S. National Weather Service had to introduce a new colour on itsgraphs to deal with the volume of rain.

“Climate change does not cause tropical cyclones. They have always been there. The relationship between climate change and the frequency of hurricanes and tropical cyclones is not clear. There’s still a lot of research going on into that,” Ms Nullis said.

In June, President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the Paris climate change pact drawing international condemnation. This month he rolled back environmental regulations on governmentfunded building projects in flood-prone areas as part of his proposal to spend $1 trillion to fix aging U.S. infrastructure.