Pakistan is no stranger to monsoon rains. They can mark it on the calendar from June to September. However, this year, the rains kept coming.
They were more intense and devastating than most years, and eventually, the water had nowhere to go.
“The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids, the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding,” U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres said in a video statement. “This climate catastrophe has killed more than 1,000 people with many more injured.”
Some provinces have already received five to six times their average annual rainfall, according to NASA. That is a staggering amount considering the average consists of 30 years of data, including 2010 when 2,000 people were killed during the deadliest monsoon flooding in the county’s history.
Mountain snow and glacier melt just compounded the issue. Pakistan has the highest concentration of glacier ice outside the polar regions, according to NASA. Melt and monsoon rains accumulate in mountain creeks and speed downhill, touching off landslides.
The Pakistan Meteorologist Department expects the monsoon season to taper off at the end of September.
Satellites were able to document the historic flood from space. Images provided by Maxar and NASA shows just how enormous this year’s monsoon flooding has been.
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