GLOBAL CLIMATE ANOMALIES AND RECENT FLOODS IN PAKISTAN.

Climate scientists preferably use the term climate anomaly to explain any significant abnormal change of surface air temperature or precipitation in the weather pattern of any region. As a result, abnormal heat waves and extremely hot weather, severe winter snowfall and blizzards, long droughts, heavy rainfall, and extraordinary floods occur. Such anomalies were more often observed in different regions of the world during the last three decades. The term climate change, led by global warming due to the rising amount of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, is generally considered the main cause. The ENSO phenomenon is also linked to the climate anomalies of the last three decades. In 2022 Europe, the USA, China, and Pakistan were affected by such climate anomalies. The Yangtze River region of China, the main rivers of European land, and the lakes and rivers of the dry land region of the USA experienced the worst long drought, creating an extreme shortage of water and electricity generation. On the other hand, Germany and southern China experienced the worst floods. Abnormally hot weather in the summer and extreme winter snowfall and blizzards severely affected people in Europe and the USA. In 2022, Pakistan was also severely affected by floods caused by abnormally heavy monsoon rainfall. Out of 170 districts, 38 were worst affected, causing the deaths of 1739 people, while houses and croplands of 33 million people were badly affected. Sindh was the most affected province, where heavy rainfall and poor drainage created catastrophic damage. Balochistan, southern Punjab, and districts of the Malakand region were severely affected by flash floods. The present study is based on the hypotheses that climatic anomalies (abnormal excessive rainfall and melting of snow) were the main causes of the flood disaster of 2022 in Pakistan. Failure of the National Disaster Management Authority is the secondary factor causing economic and human loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]