Changes in the Weather

Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Texas Tech University, and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre have concluded that our descendents will experience more bouts of extreme weather than we do.

Using supercomputers at research centers in France, Japan, Russia, and the United States, researchers ran models to simulate climate conditions for the years 2080 through 2099. Modelers used three scenarios, varying the assumed level of accumulated greenhouse gases in each.

The models agreed on several trends, including:

• The number of extremely warm nights and the length of heat waves will increase significantly over land areas across the globe.
  
• Most areas above about 40 degrees north will experience a significant increase in days with heavy precipitation.
• Dry spells will lengthen significantly and intensify drought in many areas, including the western United States, southern Europe, and eastern Brazil.
• The average growing season could increase significantly across most of North America and Eurasia.

Perhaps the most important finding was that weather extremes were significantly diminished in the scenario with lower levels of greenhouse gases. So, even if some change is inevitable, it still makes sense to begin sharply curbing emissions.