"The times, they are a changin" - extreme weather-related events in the past week

• Large parts of India are reporting deficient rainfall even as July2012 (our rainiest monsoon month) is ending- as such the spectre of drought looms large over many parts of the country (see top map- source http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm).
• The bread basket of the US reels under severe drought conditions (see bottom map - source http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/).
• In the week beginning 21July2012, 77 people died due to flooding in Beijing in the heaviest rainfall recorded since record keeping began 60yrs ago.
• NASA reports "strange and sudden massive melt in Greenland" when the ice melt area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent in four days. You can read about it here

Praful Rao