#Climate Change and Precipitation

On a hot summer day, a town, city or region is warmed by the rays of the sun. The temperature of the air over this town, city or #region rises above the surrounding countryside. The warm air rises and its place is taken by cooler air. The cooler air is warmed in its turn. Gradually, the rising air gets cooler. Finally, it reaches the saturation point. The #water vapour in the air then condenses and a #cloud is formed. When the #clouds are full of condensed water vapour, the sky fills with clouds, which become heavier and darker.  Soon after, drops of rain come splashing down on the ground, trees, and buildings.  If the #weather is really cold, snow or a mixture of snow and rain called sleet, falls instead.  At other times, the moisture may freeze completely to form #pellets or even balls of ice, called hail. The process described above is known as precipitation. #Rain, #snow, #sleet and #hail are various forms of precipitation-liquid or solid water coming from high in the atmosphere.

The #water in our atmosphere is often in the form of an invisible gas or vapour, and much of this water has been evaporated from oceans, lakes and streams, often by the heat of the sun. #Water vapour also comes from volcanic sources and from vegetation.  It also comes from the exhaled breaths of human beings and animals. The type, amount and distribution of precipitation, depends not only on climate, but also on the physical features of the land and sea. For example, there is likely to be more rainfall in tropical climates than in other areas. The reason for this is the increased heat near the equator, which causes more evaporation of water from water bodies into the atmosphere. Secondly, there is often more rain near the sea than there is inland, owing to the fact that the land and the sea are often at different temperatures. The breeze blowing off land contains less moisture than wind blowing off the sea. And if the air becomes cool enough, this moisture condenses into fog, clouds or rain.

However, there are exceptions. A region where prevailing winds contain little moisture, over a coastal area may be a desert. Along the western coast of South America particularly Chile and Peru, is a common example. This may also occur where the water or the climate is cool.  All things being equal however, the rainfall increases with the height above sea level, up to heights not exceeding ordinary cloud level.  This is due to the action of mountains in condensing the water vapour contained in the winds that blow over them.

The average rainfall of the plains of Europe is 57.4 centimeters per year. In the mountainous regions, it is over 125 centimeters. Also along, the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, in the United States, the precipitation is abundant, reaching a total of about 340 centimeters a year in certain localities. While the interior of the United States, it is much lighter with a record of sometimes 40 centimeters a year in some states. The rainiest regions of the world are probably the lower slopes of the Himalayas. The village of Cherapunji, India, south of the main body of the Himalayas, has an annual average rainfall of about 1,082 centimeters. A record breaking twelve month rainfall of 2,646.12 centimeters occurred at Cherapunji from August 1860- July 1861. Also in August 1841, no less than 3,800 centimeters of rain fell in a five day period is the equivalent of almost four years of rainfall in New York State! The heavy rainfall in the tropics, are due not so much as to condensation of moisture by mountain ranges as by the effect of cold winds pouring in from cooler regions. The line of meeting moves north and south with the movement of the sun. When the sun is north of the equator, the cloud belt is in the Northern Hemisphere, and when the sun is south of the equator, the cloud belt is in the Southern Hemisphere. The cloud movements from Northern and Southern Hemispheres and back again causes the tropical wet and dry seasons.

Now, temperature plays an important part in the precipitation process and if atmospheric temperatures increase due to the increase in the amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface, then regions on the earth prone to rainfall will dramatically experience an increased amount of precipitation. The solar energy that falls on our planet in a single week is greater than the total energy produced by all the coal, gasoline, and other fuels that man has ever burned. When it reaches the earth’s atmosphere, much of the radiant energy is reflected and scattered. But part of it passes through the atmosphere; it strikes the earth’s surface, and is absorbed by the land and oceans. These radiate much of the energy back into space as long wave heat energy as it radiates in the form of shortwave radiation. If it didn’t, our climate would grow much warmer or colder over the years, which is the case in recent times.

The activities of man have led to pollution of the atmosphere, and this has in turn affected its temperature in different ways and has brought about major changes in the climate.

Climate however, can be defined as the atmospheric conditions of a place over a particular period of time. If conditions are altered even in the slightest bit, there is climate change. Most recently, in different parts of the world, climate change has become an increasingly growing problem, stemming largely from man’s quest to solve the energy problem, and answering that quest by employing the use of three primary fossil fuel resources namely: coal, petroleum and natural gas.

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel resource in the United States, China and major parts of Africa. As oil prices have plummeted dramatically and the availability of oil is slowly declining, the use of coal again is most likely going to increase. But there are tremendous environmental problems caused by the sulfur content of coal, and not to mention the release of carbon compounds in the form of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which in turn is one of the major causes of climate change.  

The drilling of petroleum (Black gold) in the Middle East, Africa, Canada, some parts of Europe, the USA, and the processing of this oil into consumable products have gone a long way in reducing and solving man’s quest and rising demand for energy. But this has been achieved at the detriment and at the expense of the environment. The environment has been brutally affected as a result of the consequential effects of the production of petroleum products. Gas flaring activities in Nigeria, West Africa has contributed largely to the climate change especially in the Niger Delta regions of the country. Since 2014, there has been an increase in temperatures and this has caused an increased   amount of rainfall which has been experienced lately in the region. In 2015 alone, the rains fell everyday non-stop from the month of July to mid October.  Each year, the total amount of precipitation has increased resulting from the accumulated effects of many years of gas flaring activities in these places. Acute air pollution from this gas flaring has also caused a climate change in these regions. And as a result, flooding, erosion and heavy land pollution are the resultant effects of climate change.

The remains of once living animals and plants were converted into gas and oil which often occurs together. The fact that natural gas is frequently found with oil has contributed to the growth of the natural gas industry. But to get rid of this gas, it has to be flared, that is ignited at the well head and left to burn as in the case of the Niger Delta regions of Nigeria earlier mentioned above.  Countries like the United States discovered the use of natural gas since the 1820’s with the first natural gas well drilled in the country, which was opened up at Fredonia, New York in 1821.  Before then, manufactured gas from coal, coke and from oil was the main stream throughout the nineteenth century, and it is still in use in various communities today.

The Chinese, however, made use of this property as early as 140 BC! They piped the gas through hollow bamboo rods from the sites where it was channeled to the sea shore, and there they burned it to evaporate the brine and produce salt.  But such commercial use of natural gas was not common and for thousands of years, the ancients knew of the existence of this gas but looked on at it as a natural marvel rather than as a marketable commodity.

 George Washington commented wonderingly in 1775, on a “burning spring”, on the banks of the Kanawha River near Charleston, West Virginia. Gas seeping from the ground in this area had been ignited and provided a natural torch. In Africa, where the natural gas industry is still largely underdeveloped, the natural gas which occurs with oil is most of the time flared, with the exception of a few natural gas companies which specialize in liquefying this natural gas, millions of cubic meters of gas are still wasted through flaring.  And this in turn produces the green house effect which leads to climate change. Canada and Mexico are also countries with large pipeline supplies of liquefied natural gas.

A lot of people do not realize the damage energy systems do to the environment. Although most recently, governments of various countries like France, China, Italy, the USA, and The United Kingdom etc, have become increasingly aware of this demise arising from man’s activities that produce the green house gas emissions. There have been talks on how developed countries can take the lead on reducing these carbon gas emissions so that developing countries can take the cue and follow their example. 

Also there has been an actual plan put in place, I believe during and after the climate change conference which took place in December, 2015, to help developing economies combat climate change and to use greener energy alternatives. We only hope that especially in Africa, a financial monitoring scheme has been put in place to ensure that the funds given are used for the purpose for which they have been channeled, and the goal of combating climate change and reducing green gas emissions are met in Africa, and subsequently around the world.