A latest study published in National Science Review has resolved inconsistencies in the responses of Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) to greenhouse warming that arise from earlier definitions. The study reports a robust increase in WPSH’s area and intensity, its northwestward expansion, as well as in occurrence of stronger, longer-lasting record-breaking WPSH events under the past and future climate change scenario. These changes imply increasing risk exposure to monsoon rainfall extremes and heatwaves beyond historical experience for human society and communities.

Heat waves and severe air pollution are increasingly occurring together across northern India, exposing millions of people to multiple environmental hazards at the same time. A new study finds that this growing threat is driven not only by local pollution sources, but also by climate-related changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation that favor both extreme heat and intensified particle pollution.