Above photo from Inhabitat.com article about Hurricane Irene.
Extreme weather and global warming is a very controversial topic! But a topic worth thinking about, and studying, because the underlying science supports a link between the two. As the Earth warms, which essentially all climate science data supports is happening, more energy is present in the atmosphere, primarily in the form of water vapor, but also in the form of higher air temperatures. Water vapor is most significant, because as water vapor condenses, it releases its latent heat of evaporation, which then provides the energy that fuels major storm systems, such as hurricanes.
The title link and photo link provide additional perspectives on this relationship. Also note that it is integrated weather which defines climate and climate change, so it is not justified to attribute a single storm event to global warming. But a history of many more major storm events, can be ascribed to global warming with reasonable scientific certainty.
1 comment:
Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground has some given recent interviews on this subject that might be of interest.
It would also appear the scientists are quickly making in-roads on attributing individual extreme weather events to climate change.
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