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Snowfall is also a sign of global warming

25 January 2008

Sir,
The wait is finally over. The first snowfall of the year made a wakeup call to over 100,000 people living in Thimphu on 23 January. There were speculations among people that global warming caused dry winters in Thimphu and the region. People say it is not as cold as it used to be in the past years.

But the heavy snow fall in Thimphu made people believe that global warming has not affected Bhutan. They are wrong. The effect of global warming is very much felt in Bhutan. The hot summers in Thimphu, paddy cultivation in Bumthang, discovery of different plant species which are grown in warmer areas in places like Thimphu, are few evidence of global warming.

Climate scientists have long suspected that warming the oceans around a very cold continent is likely to dramatically increase snowfall. Consider Bumthang, it’s verychilly, dozens of degrees below freezing point, and it’s surrounded mountains- and Bhutan being just few hundred away from Bay of Bengal- the warmer the water, the greater the evaporation from its surface, and, obviously, the more moisture it contributes to the local atmosphere. So, when this moisture gets swirled up by the breeze towards the cold Himalayas in the north, do you think it’s going to fall as rain in Gasa? Obviously there will be snowfall.

A recent study, no shocker to real climatologists (but perhaps to climate doomsayers), demonstrates this simple physics. It appears in the latest SciencExpress, and it shows that the vast majority of the Antarctic landmass is rapidly gaining ice and snow cover.

Global warming is a concern for people living in the Himalayan countries like ours. So next time when there is heavy snowfall don’t think that global warming is not around.

Rinchen Chhophel Dorji
Thimphu

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under Opinion 

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