Evidence of Flash/ Rapid Drought in India based on Precipitation Deficit- A new Climatic Threat

Rapid intense droughts (Flash Drought) under climatic warming are of widespread concern owing to their catastrophic impacts on agricultural production, eco-system, and nation’s economy. Several studies highlight the need to develop an improved understanding of flash drought to manage its effect better, However the lack of consistent definitions have limited progress toward its assessments. A number of variables, climatic drivers are generally linked to flash drought development thus it is possible that no single description might adequately capture the flash drought. However, it is crucial to make sure that the rapid onset, fast intensification, and severe nature of flash drought can be identified and distinguished from more conventional drought (longer duration) events. With the increasing use of flash drought term within the scientific community, this study presents an evidence-based result by identifying flash droughts using pentad-scale precipitation series across India. The results demonstrate that one of the factors causing and accelerating the flash drought – rapid drought intensification and lasts for shorter duration (3 pentads to 18 pentads) is the meteorological variable precipitation. The results of this study can be further utilised in the accurate characterization of flash drought and its assessment with the strong evidence of precipitation series in finding of flash drought events across the nation.