Posted: Oct 26, 2010 5:02 pm
Global Warming to Bring More Intense Storms to Northern Hemisphere in Winter and Southern Hemisphere Year Round
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2010) — Weather systems in the Southern and Northern hemispheres will respond differently to global warming, according to an MIT atmospheric scientist's analysis that suggests the warming of the planet will affect the availability of energy to fuel extratropical storms, or large-scale weather systems that occur at Earth's middle latitudes. The resulting changes will depend on the hemisphere and season, the study found.
More intense storms will occur in the Southern Hemisphere throughout the year, whereas in the Northern Hemisphere, the change in storminess will depend on the season -- with more intense storms occurring in the winter and weaker storms in the summer. The responses are different because even though the atmosphere will get warmer and more humid due to global warming, not all of the increased energy of the atmosphere will be available to power extratropical storms. It turns out that the changes in available energy depend on the hemisphere and season, according to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Stormy sea in the Southern hemisphere. More intense storms will occur in the
Southern Hemisphere throughout the year, whereas in the Northern Hemisphere,
the change in storminess will depend on the season -- with more intense storms
occurring in the winter and weaker storms in the summer.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Paul Pegler)
