Socioeconomic challenges continue to mount for half a billion residents of central India because of a decline in the total rainfall and a concurrent rise in the magnitude and frequency of extreme rainfall events. Alongside a weakening monsoon circulation, the locally available moisture and the frequency of moisture-laden depressions from the Bay of Bengal have also declined. Here we show that despite these negative trends, there is a threefold increase in widespread extreme rain events over central India during 1950–2015. The rise in these events is due to an increasing variability of the low-level monsoon westerlies over the Arabian Sea, driving surges of moisture supply, leading to extreme rainfall episodes across the entire central subcontinent. The homogeneity of these severe weather events and their association with the ocean temperatures underscores the potential predictability of these events by two-to-three weeks, which offers hope in mitigating their catastrophic impact on life, agriculture and property.

Hails observed at Ny Alesund, Svalbard in the Arctic during December–February 2018–19 is examined along with the atmospheric circulation patterns. When hail was noticed, surface warming and southwesterly—westerly winds were noticed. Atmospheric circulation pattern was characterised by high pressure anomaly over northwestern Europe. High clouds as well as excess liquid water were present when the high pressure systems were active over northwestern Europe. This is because winds blowing over ocean collect more moisture as well as transport nucleating particles to Svalbard. Also, hourly winds from ERA 5 reanalysis indicated vertical shear required for hail formation. When hails were observed, mixed precipitation types were recorded with the maximum intensities arising from the hails. The West Spitzbergen Current (WSC) induces a strong east west sea surface temperature (SST) gradient in the ocean west of Svalbard. A corresponding gradient in the atmospheric temperature is also maintained by the WSC in the west to east direction in the lower atmosphere. Moisture laden westerlies cross the SST gradient and induce strong frontal activity in the lower atmosphere resulting intense precipitation and hail. The upward vertical velocity noted in the lower troposphere supports the frontal activity. Human activities in the Arctic as elsewhere are bound to increase. Hence, there is a need to study the intense precipitation in the Arctic as well as its reasons as it can impact the Arctic environment and human activity. This calls for more continuous observations to clearly identify mechanisms and frequency of intense precipitation in the Arctic.

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