New paper finds most severe droughts in the Himalayas occurred when CO2 was 'safe'

A paper published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres reconstructs droughts in the western Himalayan region over the past ~550 years since 1460 and finds the periods of severe drought occurred when CO2 was "safe." According to the authors, "The reconstruction revealed persistent severe droughts in 1780's followed by 1480's and relatively lesser magnitude droughts in 1540-1560's, 1740's, and early 20th century. The pluvial [rainy] conditions observed in 1948-1958 and 1986-1996 standout over any other period of such duration." The IPCC falsely claimed that the primary Himalayan water source [glaciers] would disappear by 2035, but this new paper demonstrates that the most severe droughts occurred naturally without any possible human influence.

Tree-ring-based snowfall record for cold arid Western Himalaya, India since A.D. 1460

Ram R. Yadav, Mahendra R. Bhutiyani

Understanding snowfall variations in high elevation cold arid regions of the western Himalaya is important as snowmelt water is the main source of water to meet the scores of socioeconomic needs. The ground-based observational data, though limited to last two decades, show decreasing snowfall raising the concern of looming water scarcity in the region. The tree-ring data of Himalayan cedar from a network of six moisture stressed sites, where snowmelt water is the sole source of soil moisture for tree growth, were used to develop November-April snow water equivalent (SWE) extending back to AD 1460. The reconstruction revealed persistent severe droughts in 1780 s followed by 1480 s and relatively lesser magnitude droughts in 1540-1560 s, 1740 s, and early 20th century. The pluvial [rainy] conditions observed in 1948-1958 and 1986-1996 standout over any other period of such duration. The SWE reconstruction revealed large-scale spatial coherence with the corresponding month's Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) over the western Himalayan region. Significant relationship observed between SWE reconstruction and January-March Chenab River flow revealed its potential utility in understanding water resource availability in long-term perspective.

Prior posts on droughts