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Renovations put Seattle hockey arena closer to its goal of zero carbon emissions.
Tag: rainfall
Study: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse
New York Times: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse. The annual summer monsoon in South Asia begins this month. A new study points to more destructive storms.
Global warming is likely to make India’s monsoon season wetter and more dangerous, new research suggests.
Scientists have known for years that climate change is disrupting monsoon season. Past research based on computer models has suggested that the global heating caused by greenhouse gases, and the increased moisture in the warmed atmosphere, will result in rainier summer monsoon seasons and unpredictable, extreme rainfall events.
The new paper, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence for the theory by looking back over the past million years to give a sense of monsoons to come.
Study: Melting ice in Antarctica could trigger chain reactions, bringing monsoon rains to the ice cap
In an ever-warming climate, ripple effects or chain reactions could lead to altered weather patterns across the globe thanks to a melting Antarctic ice sheet, a new study says.
The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that as Earth continues to heat up, the land underneath the Antarctic ice sheet will become more exposed. As a result of that process, wind patterns will shift, and rainfall will increase over Antarctica, which could trigger processes that speed up ice loss.
“We found that ice sheet retreat exposing previously ice-covered land led to big increases in rainfall, which through a feedback mechanism dramatically warms the ocean,” Catherine Bradshaw, senior scientist at the UK Met Office and lecturer at the University of Exeter told CNN.
The Daily Climate, April 15, 2021
Articles include: 2050 Goals are inadequate; champagne & climate change; 100% clean power; renewable energy powers decarbonization; electric vehicles by 2035; Interior Department and Manchin; Epic Drought; Indian monsoon season; ticks moving into the Arctic; East African oil pipeline; American research station abandoned; food web in the Great Lakes.
Global warming’s extreme rains threaten Hawaii’s coral reefs
ABC News: Global warming’s extreme rains threaten Hawaii’s coral reefs. Recent flooding in Hawaii caused widespread and obvious damage.
As muddy rainwater surged from Hawaii’s steep seaside mountains and inundated residential communities last month, the damage caused by flooding was obvious — houses were destroyed and businesses swamped, landslides covered highways and raging rivers and streams were clogged with debris.
But extreme rain events predicted to become more common with human-caused global warming not only wreak havoc on land — the runoff from these increasingly severe storms also threatens Hawaii’s coral reefs.
“These big events are the ones that have the greatest damage because they are the ones that put the most sediment and nutrients out onto the reef,” said C. Mark Eakin, senior coral advisor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the former director of the agency’s Coral Reef Watch program.
Multiyear drought builds in western US with little relief in sight
CNN: Multiyear drought builds in western US with little relief in sight.
While much has been written this year about atmospheric rivers, avalanche warnings and even flash flooding, the western half of the United States is experiencing a crushing drought.
The weather patterns have left parts of the Northwest soggy. Still, 80% of the land in the western states face some official category of drought.
That is nearly half of the entire continental US, or put another way, the size of New York State times 25. The drought is affecting more than 70 million people.
Report: Climate Change Increases Flooding Risk For Some 230,000 Ohio Valley Homes
Ohio Valley Resource: Climate Change Increases Flooding Risk For Some 230,000 Ohio Valley Homes.
A new analysis of flooding risk that accounts for the effects of climate change finds many more homes in Appalachian communities in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia are at risk of flooding than the federal government’s emergency managers have indicated. In 12 Appalachian counties in the region, at least half of all residences are at risk, and in West Virginia one in five homes carry a high risk of flooding, according to an analysis of the data released by the nonprofit First Street Foundation.
“In Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio — especially the Appalachian region — that risk has not been tracked properly,” said Jeremy Porter, head of research and development at First Street Foundation. Porter said the findings have implications for whether homeowners are properly insured against the risk of flooding damage. “People are not protected against the current climate environment.”
As Extreme Weather Events Increase, What Are the Risks to Wildlife?
The Revelator: As Extreme Weather Events Increase, What Are the Risks to Wildlife? Last year the United States racked up nearly $100 billion in damages from weather and climate disasters. These events are starting to take their toll on wildlife, too.
A hailstorm in South Texas. Tornadoes in Tennessee. Wildfires across the West. A barrage of Gulf Coast hurricanes. Those are among the record 22 weather and climate disasters that each topped $1 billion in damages last year in the United States.
In all, the price tag for 2020 hit a whopping $95 billion — and that’s just in the United States. Reinsurance firm Swiss Re put global economic losses at $175 billion last year, including $32 billion for floods in China and $13 billion in damages from Cyclone Amphan across India and Bangladesh.
The worst news? Our profligate burning of fossil fuels means we’re in store for more.
Studies show that climate change is supercharging some weather and climate events and will lead to more severe and longer-lasting heat waves, stronger hurricanes, an increased wildfire risk and a longer wildfire season. We can also expect more heavy rain events and severe droughts, not to mention other extreme events like February’s polar vortex.
Is your house going to flood because of climate change? These maps will tell you
Fast Company: Is your house going to flood because of climate change? These maps will tell you. The flooding maps that determine flood insurance rates aren’t in tune with the latest climate projections. These new maps are more accurate.
As climate change makes it more likely that many houses in the U.S. will flood—because of rising sea levels, extreme rainfall, or both—federal flood maps, which are used to determine rates for flood insurance, are out of date. A new report maps out where homes now are most at risk, looking at the chances of properties flooding now and 30 years in the future. By the middle of the century, the damage could cost $32 billion a year.
Study: California’s Rainy Season Now Starts a Month Later Than It Used To
Yale Climate Connection: California’s Rainy Season Now Starts a Month Later Than It Used To. The start of California’s rainy season has been getting progressively later in recent decades, and now begins a month after it did just 60 years ago, shifting from November to December, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Scientists say the delay in the start of the rain has prolonged the state’s wildfire season and exacerbated water shortages.
Last year was California’s worst wildfire season on record, with nearly 10,000 fires burning more than 4.2 million acres.
“What we’ve shown is that it will not happen in the future, it’s happening already,” Jelena Luković, a climate scientist at the University of Belgrade in Serbia and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. “The onset of the rainy season has been progressively delayed since the 1960s, and as a result the precipitation season has become shorter and sharper in California.”