Top five global warming wacky weather risks

While most people agree that global warming is occurring, there’s some confusion as to what that really means.  The term “global warming” suggests that we’ll simply have balmier summers and milder winters - but the truth is unfortunately much more serious than that.

Global warming creates more severe weather that is diverse and contradictory.  Dry weather, wet weather, heat waves, hurricanes—all of these can be traced back to climate change.

Following are five ways we are already seeing the effects of global warming manifest themselves in our weather, and what they mean for our future.

Stronger storms

Strong storms are derived from ocean waters.  Global warming means higher surface temperatures.  Scientists are deriving a link between higher ocean temperatures caused by global warming and more frequent, more severe hurricanes.  According to the Environmental Defense Fund, Atlantic hurricanes have increased both in number and intensity since 1970.

In 2008, researchers from Nature reported that the average tropical ocean temperature has risen by about 0.5 degree C since 1970.  Every full degree in temperature increase, Nature claims, will lead to a 31% global increase in the rate of category 4 and 5 hurricanes.  Some scientists predict that ocean temperatures could go up over 2 degrees by 2100—a scary outlook for stormy weather.

Drier droughts

Many scientists predict that global warming will also lead to more common and harsh droughts.  Higher average temperatures caused by global warming lead to faster groundwater evaporation and a lot of water vapor in the air.  Once there is no water left in the ground, the heat of the sun dries out the soil, making it hard to grow anything.

Additionally, a drought can become somewhat of a vicious cycle, since when there is no water in the soil there is nothing to form rain clouds, and no rain makes the soil even drier!  This presents a risk to our crops, livestock, and human water supply.

Damper downpours

When it does rain, however, it’ll really rain.

Not only will global warming create more intense storms and hurricanes (see above), but warmer temperatures will cause what might normally fall as snow to fall as rain instead.  Heavy precipitation has steadily increased throughout the last century, and many scientists predict that the rare, extreme floods of the past may become a lot more commonplace.

Hotter heat waves

A heat wave is defined as a period of three days or more of temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  Heat waves can be costly to crops, lead to power outages and wildfires, and be dangerous to people.  Between 1979 and 2003, 8,015 people died as a result of excessive heat, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

As increased carbon emissions lead to warmer temperatures across the globe, long stretches of hot weather may become more and more common.

Fiercer fires

…And, inevitably, hot, dry conditions set the scene for fire.

Poor forest management is no longer commonly seen as the driving force behind the upswing in wildfires—rather, it is the spike in temperatures created by global warming.  Not only does the hot, parched weather that increase the odds of a fire, but it also allows for a longer lifespan of tree-eating beetles, which create plenty of dead, dry forest debris that burns easily.

Since 1986, longer, warmer summers have lead to an increase in number of forest fires by four times, with six times the amount of area scorched, according to Science magazine.  Recent statistics from 2006 show a 125% percent increase in number of wildfires over the 10-year average.

More from ecomii:

• The truth about hurricanes
• Extreme weather linked to global warming
• Reduce, reuse, and recycle to lower carbon emissions
• Save money and conserve energy in your home
• Catch energy vampires

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