Overview
- The World Weather Attribution team said warmer North Indian Ocean waters added heat and moisture to Cyclones Senyar and Ditwah, strengthening deluges over Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
- During the five rainiest days, sea surface temperatures were about 0.2°C above the 1991–2020 average, and without roughly 1.3°C of global warming they would have been about 1°C cooler.
- Researchers estimated extreme rainfall intensity increased by 9–50% in the Malacca Strait region and by 28–160% in Sri Lanka.
- Floods and landslides have killed more than 1,600 people with millions displaced, though the study could not precisely apportion climate change’s share because of model limits for the affected islands.
- The analysis points to rapid urbanization, deforestation and low-lying development as key damage drivers, with losses in the billions of dollars including about $3 billion in Indonesia and roughly $7 billion in Sri Lanka.