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Jan 22, 2009 05:35 PM | 10
Hate the cold? Well hey, here's a cynically silver-lined perk to global warming: Hot days come earlier than they once did.
Earth's average temperature increased by 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit (0.7 degree Celsius) from 1905 to 2005, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Over the past 50 years, each season has begun nearly two days earlier than in the century before, Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley, scientists report today in Nature. Scientists have previously noted earlier springs, but the new findings (based on an analysis of land and ocean surface temps between 1850 and 2007) suggest that every season is getting an early start.
The reason for the shift isn’t entirely clear, but the study authors suspect that the Northern Annular Mode, a pattern of air movements across the Northern Hemisphere, may play a role. That pattern has brought stronger winter winds— and, therefore, warmer ocean air—to land, driving up winter temps and, perhaps, the researchers say, triggering earlier springs. And premature spring thaws mean drier soil earlier in the year; the drier the soil, the greater its ability to absorb and trap heat.
The combination could cause a vicious cycle of premature springs and summer droughts, says study co-author Inez Fung, co-director of the university's Berkeley Institute of the Environment. "Because the soil is dry, it will get hotter. If it gets hotter, the evaporation [of winter snow and rain] will go faster," Fung tells ScientificAmerican.com. "More droughts, more intense droughts, longer droughts—that’s what I very much worry about."
Image © iStockphoto/Clint Spencer
Tags:
wind,
climate change,
temperature,
soil,
seasons,
ocean,
global warming
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10 Comments
Add CommentDoes that mean it gets colder sooner too?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Break out your summer clothes" ??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is exactly the kind of sentiment that fuels the skeptics and disbelievers in Global Warming. One cold winter and they do not need to "Break out your summer clothes."
Please try sticking to science - and try to sound like it.
Leave them to their skeptism and then when they are dying from the results they refused to see, than we can say; We told u so.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProblem is, we'll be dying along with them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLOL! Yeah, but I bet I will force a rasp out....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRemember to hang your summer clothes on a clothesline to dry after they are washed by hand.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan't do that if there is no water left.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI broke out my Arctic Survival Parka for the first time in 5 years. Breaking out my Hawaii shirts earlier sounds good to me!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think its really true this is a big reason of worry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this=============
<a href="http://yourfashionshop.com" rel="dofollow">Fashion</a>
I think its really true this is a big reason of worry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this=============
<a href="http://yourfashionshop.com" rel="dofollow">Fashion</a>