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Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by mring33621 on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:31PM (#32692721)
Climate change is real and has changed the temporal distribution of rainfall, often increasing the interval between rainfalls, while also increasing the amount that falls, during rainy periods.

Longer durations of 'no rain' cause the ground harden to a much less porous, concrete-like surface that cannot absorb the rain, when it does come, fast enough. So the water pools and flows, causing flood conditions.

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by nerdponx on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:39PM (#32692822)
The article also blames high amounts of glacial melt (to the point of bursting through glacial dams) sending a lot of extra water through waterways in a short amount of time.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by sremani on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:10PM (#32693186)
With all due respect why are Glaciers melting in August.. or July or June. April and May are hot as hell in Indian Subcontinent.

edit: glaciers melt in summer, I am surprised why they are melting in rainy season. No matter how you vote, just explain why this odd behavior.

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by ajmurmann on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:26PM (#32694174)
Why is that odd? Ice melts when it's warm.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by sremani on Tuesday September 06, 2022 @09:07AM (#32736590)
Because you would have signs of glacial melt ahead of time. You would know in may if not June. Not in end of august.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by aeternum on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:43PM (#32692873)
Except it has happened about every 12 years throughout history

The ancients even created a name for it: La Nina.

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by handoflixue on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:49PM (#32692946)
Huh, I didn't believe you at first but apparently there was indeed very severe flooding in 2010, and again in 1992.

That said, back in 1992 this only affected 3 million people, and now it's 30 million. The population of the country only doubled over the same time span, so it seems like this year's flooding is easily five times worse than before

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by pengaru on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:55PM (#32693015)
> back in 1992 this only affected 3 million people, and now it's 30 million. The population of the country only doubled over the same time span, so it seems like this year's flooding is easily five times worse than before

Or the distribution of people living in the flood plane drastically changed in that period. See my other comment @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32653203

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by piceas on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:14PM (#32693252)
Land-use matters. I don't have a good link but there has been reporting on the topic.

e.g. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-environment-fore...

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by MrRiddle on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:53PM (#32692989)
Maybe the increase of population was mostly in affected areas, not 5 times worse.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by fiftyfifty on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:18PM (#32693299)
Except this is our third La Nina year in a row, the first time that's ever happened:

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/wmo-forecasts-f...

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by plantain on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:40PM (#32693564)
What?

We had a triple dip in 1998, and before that 1976.

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by soperj on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:07PM (#32693910)
Also 1954-57.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by mokus on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:37PM (#32693525)
That article only says it’s the first this century.
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by plantain on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:41PM (#32693571)
As long as you define century as 2000-2100, and not 1922-2022...
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by avgcorrection on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:32PM (#32694240)
“This century” is fixed to start at 2000 until 2100, same as this decade is 2020–2029.

“Last hundred years” for the former interpretation.

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by Karellen on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:59PM (#32694549)
Or 2001 until 2101, if you're being pedantic about the Nth century AD/CE.

(Because there is no year 0 in the AD/CE calendar, so the first century in the calendar starts in year 1, the second in 101, etc...)

Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by quietbritishjim on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:30PM (#32694212)
That is how "this century" would typically be understood
Re:Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year? by bmismyname on Friday September 02, 2022 @01:37PM (#32693527)
Whatabout this thing that can happen at the same time as the climate changing due to human pollution?