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Climate Scientist Tapio Schneider Urges Broader Early Warning Systems Beyond Rainfall
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CNBC TV18•20-09-2026, 14:02
Climate Scientist Tapio Schneider Urges Broader Early Warning Systems Beyond Rainfall
- •Climate scientist Tapio Schneider advocates for expanding early warning systems to include non-rainfall triggers for disasters, citing Nepal's flash floods.
- •Schneider, a Caltech professor, highlighted the August 26 Nepal flash floods, triggered by an ice and rock collapse, which caused over 1,200 deaths.
- •He noted that global warming and melting permafrost will lead to more such events, emphasizing the inevitability of a decade with 1.5 degrees Celsius warming.
- •Schneider leads the 'Climate Modelling Alliance,' developing a new Earth system model to improve climate projections by better representing small-scale processes.
- •He suggested India could use AI models with IMD data to improve rainfall prediction and climate risk assessment, making advanced climate modeling more accessible globally.
Key Questions Answered
The flash floods in Nepal were triggered by a high-altitude ice and rock collapse that sent debris flowing from Tibet through central Nepal.
Schneider recommends expanding early warning systems beyond rainfall events to include non-rainfall triggers like ice and rock collapses, providing a few minutes of warning to save lives downstream.
Schneider suggested that affordable university groups can develop AI models by utilizing extensive monsoon rainfall records from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to make them better.
