CLIMATE AND RAINFALL IN NEPAL

Nepal has very pleasant climate. Nepal has four distinct seasons. Spring, from March to May is warm and dusty with rain showers. Summer, from June to August, is the monsoon season when the hills turn lush and green. Autumn, from September to November, is cool with clear skies, and is the most popular trekking season. In winter from December to February, it is cold at night and can be foggy in the early morning but afternoons are usually clear and pleasant, though there is occasional snow in the mountains.

Weather climate condition in Nepal vary from region to region. Summer and late spring temperatures range from more than 40 Degrees Celsius in the Tera i to about 28 Degrees Celsius in the hilly region of the country. In winter, average maximum and minimum temperatures in the Terai range from a mild 23 Degrees Celsius to a brisk 7 Degrees Celsius while the central valleys experience a chilly 12 Degrees Celsius maximum temperature and a minimum temperature often falling below freezing point.

Much colder temperatures prevail at higher elevations. The Kathmandu Valley situated at an altitude of 1310m, has a seasonable but equable climate with average summer and winter temperatures of 27 Degrees Celsius to 19 Degrees Celsius and 20 Degrees Celsius to 2 Degrees Celsius respectively. The annual rainfall in Kathmandu generally exceeds 1300mm. The mean annual precipitation ranges from more than 6000mm along the southern slopes of the Annapurna range in central Nepal to less than the 250mm in the north central portion near the Tibetan plateau. Amounts varying between 1500 and 2500mm predominate over most of the country. On an average, about 80% of the precipitation is confined to the monsoon period (June-September).

Nepal's Biodiversity at a Glance

The tallest mountain range in the world, the Himalaya is also a youngest and is still growing. This range deprives the great Tibetan plateau from monsoon and forms the rain shadow. And on the other hand it also blocks the cold northern winds reaching the Indian plains during winter. Because of these phenomena the southern parts of the Himalaya is lush green, productive and prone to erosion due to full brunt of monsoon, whereas the northern Tibetan plateau remained arid region. This uniqueness in the climate found due to altitudinal variation allows Nepal to experience from Tropical to Alpine bio-climate, despite our geographical position. Hence Nepal boasts from the large terrestrial rhinos and elephants of the tropics to the snow leopard and Tibetan Argali of alpine region.

Nepal has been ranked top ten highest flowering plant diversity out of 25 Asian countries. On a world scale Nepal lies 27th in the richness scale on floral diversity. With just over 0.1% of the earths land surface occurring in Nepal, it supports globally known 4.2% butterflies (635 spp), 2.2 % of fresh water fish species (185 spp), 1.1 % amphibians (43 spp.), 1.5% reptile (100 spp.), 8.5% of birds (860 spp.) and 4.2% mammals (181 spp).


Distribution of butterflies, Freshwater fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals Group Name #1 Terai and Siwaliks Midhills Highlands
Spp. % Spp. % Spp. %
Butterflies 635 325 51.2 557 87.7 82 12.9
Freshwater fishes 185 154 83.2 76 41.1 6 3.2
Amphibians 43 22 51.2 29 67.4 9 20.9
Reptiles 100 68 68 56 56 13 13
Freshwater fishes 844 648 *77.8 691 *83 413 *49.7
Mammals 181 91 *51.1 110 *61.5 80 *45.0
Total* 1988 1308 *66.3 1519 *77.0 603 *30.5

Earthquake: Ist Danger Zone

As I watch the horrific aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the scale of the rescue effort needed, I cant believe the turmoil that has struck Japan. It is so alarming and distressing to see a developed country that is prepared for the danger of an earthquake be so totally overwhelmed. I am also becoming more and more alarmed of the scale of the disaster if an earthquake were to strike Kathmandu. I met a seismologist who was working here last year and he told me some extremely frightening statistics, my girlfriend has actually also been working on an article about it for the last few weeks. The verdict is that when an earthquake strikes here it may well be more lethal than Haiti.

Geo Hazards International rate Kathmandu as the number one danger spot world-wide. There are several reasons for this... all of them very very alarming.

It is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Mazes of medium-high rise masonry building, virtually none of which are EQ proofed, tiny streets, no green spaces, and no-where to run. The country has been at war up until a few years ago and any regulation that was in place has since been ignored. There was a huge influx of migration into the city during the war and many poorly built buildings went up. The entire valley floor is densely packed with poorly built 3-4 story buildings.
The entire city is built on a sandy former-lake bed which acts like an amplifier for any shaking in the region.
There is only one airport, with one runway. But the route into and out of the airport will likely be blocked. And in fact it is believed to be in the worst area in the city for damage.
There are only 3 roads into and out of Kathmandu. All of them are tiny and cross huge mountains. All 3 are certain to be entirely cut-off due to landslides. Perhaps for many weeks. Considering there are very regularly landslides simply after heavy rainfall i don"t find this very surprising. This means that the city is entirely cut off from the world, when the earthquake does hit there may be no way of getting into or out of the city.
As one of the worlds poorest countries it has very few resources. There are 8 working fire-engines in a city of 2.5 million people. The mobile phone building headquarters are not even proofed. Even right now before the earthquake it has only 10 hrs of electricity per day.
A very large earthquake is overdue. The last one was in 1934. They are expected roughly every 75 years. It would likely be a 8+ scale earthquake. The area to the west of Kathmandu is even more overdue.

It is inspiring to see the outpouring of funds and help going to Japan and Haiti and New Zealand. Japan certainly needs all the help it can get right now, but i cant help thinking that funds may be better spent on prevention in areas where lack of money is the number one issue. The frustrating thing is that most of this destruction can be entirely avoided. Experts had been screaming about the potential disaster waiting to happen before Haiti and there was very little done except after the event. Experts are now screaming about the dangers in Kathmandu, Istanbul, Tehran and elsewhere but we don"t hear about these until after they happen. And when it does happen to Kathmandu no amount of funds can help because of the problem of getting into the city. I cant help thinking that the media is failing us. As soon as it happens they are all over it with TV cameras and helicopters but right now many people in Kathmandu i have spoken to seem to be completely unaware of the dangers. Some are not even aware they are in an earthquake zone.

Climate Change

Climate change is a long-term shift in the statistic of the weather. For example, it could show up as a change in climate normal (Expected average values for temperature and Precipitation) for a given place and time of year, from one decade to the next. We know that the global climate is currently changing. The last decade of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st have been the warmest period in the entire global instrumental temperature record, starting in the mid-19th century.
Why is the Climate Changing?
Natural variability
Climate change is a normal part of the Earth’s natural variability, which is related to interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, and land, as well as changes in the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth. The geologic record includes significant evidence for large-scale climate changes in Earth’s past. An example of this variability is shown in the plot below of temperature data for the last 420,000 years, derived from an Antarctic ice core.
An example of this variability is shown in the plot below of temperature data for the last 420,000 years, derived from an Antarctic ice core.
Human-induced change
Greenhouse Gases
Certain naturally occurring gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O), trap heat in the atmosphere causing a greenhouse effect. Burning of fossil fuels, like oil, coal, and natural gas is adding CO2 to the atmosphere. The current level is the highest in the past 650,000 years. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes, “That most of the observed increase in the globally averaged
Temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.”
What is being done to Study the Effects of Climate Change?
There are numerous potential effects of climate change. Extensive research is being done around the world – a good deal within NOAA – to determine the extent to which climate change is occurring, how much of it is being caused by anthropogenic (manmade) forces, and its potential impacts. In some of these areas, there is not a consensus among scientists and in fact, there are often conflicting points-of-view and studies. However, with further research, no doubt many questions regarding impacts will be resolved in the future. Potential impacts most studied by researchers include the effects on sea level, drought, local weather, and hurricanes. Most of our current knowledge of global change comes from General Circulation Models (GCMs).
At present, GCMs have the ability to provide us with a mean annual temperature for the planet that is reliable. Regional and local temperature and precipitation information from GCMs is, at present, unreliable. Much of the global change research effort is focused on improving these models.