Extreme floods are being witnessed in various parts of the world, with the most recent examples being the devastating floods in Bangladesh, China, and Canada. This frequent occurrence of floods reminds us that the rapidly warming atmosphere is now capable of holding much more moisture than before.
In April 2023, severe floods struck Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and Jordan, accompanied by intense lightning, hailstorms, and excessive rainfall. Meteorologists later found that the atmosphere in those regions was carrying a record amount of moisture, surpassing even the conditions in 2005.
Two months later, Chile experienced 500 millimeters of rainfall in just three days – so much water fell from the sky that it melted some parts of the Andes Mountains. This led to widespread flooding, destroying roads, bridges, and water supply systems.
A year ago, some parts of Australia were hit by floods which the country’s politicians termed “rain bombs”. Over 20 people died in the floods and thousands were displaced.
Scientists say these events were caused by atmospheric rivers, which are becoming increasingly intense. These atmospheric rivers are becoming longer, wider, and more destructive, putting millions of people worldwide at risk of floods, according to NASA.
These sky rivers or flying rivers are tall and wide columns of water vapor that extend from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere. They generally originate in the tropics and then move towards the colder polar regions.
These flying rivers carry about 90% of the total water vapor that moves across the mid-latitudes of the Earth. An average atmospheric river is about 2,000 kilometers long, 500 kilometers wide, and about 3 kilometers deep – although these rivers are becoming longer and wider. Sometimes, they can be more than 5,000 kilometers long and wide. However, humans cannot see these rivers; they only see some clustered clouds.
Brian Kahn, an atmospheric researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has stated that these rivers can be detected using infrared and microwave frequencies. This is why satellites can be highly effective in monitoring water vapor and atmospheric rivers worldwide. These vast and powerful rivers in the atmosphere can spread moisture 15 times more than the Mississippi, the longest river in North America.
