Global Warming and Recent 2009 drought

As they all say, its all global warming ! The most contemporary effect of this climate change in our lives is 2009 drought which of course as we all know has sent food prices soaring.

You may have always wondered (well! at least some) how this drought and Global warming are connected. Though many point towards Global warming, there is no clear unanimous theory yet.

Well answer to this recent drought is phenomena of El Nino. El Nino is a global climatic event that affects our monsoons. During this event, surprisingly a high pressure exists over Indian subcontinent as opposed to low pressure in summers (a riddle which remains unsolved). Due to this pressure reversal, monsoons which are pulled into India, due to low pressure over Indian subcontinent, is severely affected. And in India we experience drought.

Now where does climate change come into picture ? Earlier this El Nino cycle used to repeat itself in 15-20 yrs. Post 1950s, it was seen to occur every 4 years and with 21st century, scientists are dreading us for a renewed periodic cycle of 2.5 yrs. This increased frequency of El Nino as many world scientist claim is an effect of global warming.

But alas ! our scientists are yet to fully understand this phenomena and its connection to global warming though it has been part of human history as long as we can remember.

PS - El Nino event is predicted to continue in 2010, so you may see a consecutive year of drought.