Tibetans wake up to nosebleeds in super-dry autumn

Passengers massage their head on board the first Beijing-to-Lhasa train as it cruises along the Qinghai-Tibet railway, July 3, 2006. Many passengers were affected by the high-altitude during the journey. Moisture has become a luxury in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where many locals are waking up to nosebleeds in the dry autumn, state media said on Monday as the Himalayan region faces growing threat of global warming.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Moisture has become a luxury in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where many locals are waking up to nosebleeds in the dry autumn, state media said on Monday as the Himalayan region faces growing threat of global warming.

"As it stands, there is little water component in the air in the Sunlight City which sits at 3,700 meters above sea level, making the weather extremely dry and things flammable," Xinhua news agency quoted the Lhasa Observatory as saying.

"The weather has also caused many Tibetans to wake up to nosebleeds."

The observatory has reported record low humidity in Lhasa since October while most of China's south had rainfall.

Tibet, long regarded as sensitive to the effects of global warming, is heating up faster than anywhere else in the world, state media has said.

Scientists have warned that the warming Qinghai-Tibet plateau will melt glaciers, dry up major Chinese rivers and trigger drought, sandstorms and desertification.