Warmer oceans would fuel more thunderstormsSAN FRANCISCO -- Inhabitants of the tropics can expect to see more severe
storms if sea-surface temperatures in the region continue to rise as Earth’s
climate changes. He and JPL colleague Joao Teixeira have analyzed five years’ worth of data from the satellite. They reported December 19 in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union that such rainfall-producing clouds are more frequent over areas where ocean temperatures are warm — a finding that bolsters a previous study that showed an increase in global rainfall as climate has warmed in recent decades. For every 1 degree Celsius increase in average sea-surface temperature,
the team noted a 45 percent increase in how frequently deep convective
clouds appeared. Other studies show that Earth’s average temperature is now
rising about 0.13 degrees Celsius per decade, says Aumann. So, if that
temperature rise continues, the tropics will see the frequency of strong
storms rise about 6 percent each decade. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2008 All rights reserved. sciencenews.org To subscribe or visit go to: http://www.sciencenews.org
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