Causes and probability of occurrence of extreme precipitation events like Chennai 2015

It is of utmost importance to determine the odds of occurrence of such extreme floods in the future, and the related climate phenomena, for planning and mitigation purposes. Here, a suite of simulations from GFDL high-resolution coupled climate models are used to investigate the odds of occurrence of extreme floods induced by extreme precipitation over Chennai and the role of radiative forcing and/or large-scale SST forcing in enhancing the probability of such events in the future.

The climate of twentieth-century experiments with large ensembles suggest that the radiative forcing may not enhance the probability of extreme floods over Chennai. Doubling of CO2 experiments also fails to show evidence for an increase of such events in a global warming scenario. Further, this study explores the role of SST forcing from the Indian and Pacific Oceans on the odds of occurrence of Chennai-like floods.