HOW GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTS THE WEATHER
For years, some scientists have been skeptical about climate change and believed that global warming barely affects the weather or doesn’t at all. However, with the alarming weather variability that we are experiencing today -- stronger hurricanes, and the countless occurrences of droughts escalating into wildfires over long periods of time -- a growing number of scientists are becoming more convinced that global warming may have a considerable impact on the weather.
The source of all weather conditions is the sun, which warms the earth in an irregular pattern because of different exteriors, including rocks and trees which soak up and reflect sunlight in different levels. Due to this unevenness, pressure differences are shaped, and wind gushes between areas of low and high temperature. Moreover, ocean currents can change the temperature of the ground surface which they encounter. Hence, the earth’s atmosphere is in a steady cycle of evaporation and precipitation. The nature of this cycle could affect global warming, at the same time global warming also causes these atmospheric and oceanic cycles.
With the creeping climate change - that is, more heat being trapped inside the earth -- these changes and irregularities may take a turn for the worse. Ocean temperatures become warmer, and the speed and course of its currents affects sea evaporation rates. This aggravates precipitation and causes more powerful hurricanes, more rainfall, flooding, erosion, and devastating tropical storms. Deadlier and more frequent heat waves can also be expected, and could result in the spread of disease and rise of heat-related deaths. Increased evaporation, especially during summer and autumn, could lead to more droughts and wildfires.
According to research, the past near decade has generated the warmest years, which is a considerable indication of climate change. In 2006, the annual average temperature reading was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A number of droughts have cropped up in the last thirty years, which have produced destructive wildfires. These recent occurrences have broken the record of other several wildfires in the past, not to mention the California wildfires in 2007 that brought particular regions of California into great havoc and destroyed thousands of homes. Additionally, rain frequency has increased in the past fifty years due to the climate change, and storms have intensified alarmingly.
Recent research suggests that global warming makes hurricanes stronger because warmer temperatures heat up the ocean surface, thereby pumping more energy for storms as they spin and grow over the open oceans; this does not necessarily imply that climate change is generating more hurricanes and typhoons. This is factual analyses based on actual storms rather than computer data used to predict the behavior of future storms. The factual data shows that the patterns are correlated to increases in the average ocean surface temperatures and the increases in the average of global atmospheric temperatures during the same period. The data also holds that major storms in the Atlantic and the Pacific enormously grew by 50% in both their duration and intensity since 1970.
Resources about how Global Warming affects the weather
- Experts say that Global Warming is fueling nastier storms.
- Read about the effects of global warming from Life Science.
- Visit a website about the World of Global Warming.