Why India’s monsoon is becoming more extreme – even though overall rainfall has hardly increased

Why India’s monsoon is becoming more extreme – even though overall rainfall has hardly increased

Across India, torrential rains over the past few months have swallowed an entire village in the Himalayas, flooded Punjab’s farmlands and brought Kolkata to a standstill. This all happened in a monsoon season in which total rainfall was technically only 8% above normal. Climate change is not simply making India’s monsoon wetter. It’s making it wilder – with longer dry spells and more extreme downpours. The Indian summer monsoon, which delivers a…