While severe weather like hurricanes and tornadoes typically only hit particular areas of the globe, lightning can strike anywhere. And it does, a lot. A bolt of lightning flashes through the sky and hits the ground somewhere around the world about 100 times every second. That’s 8 million lightning strikes in a single day — yes, you read that right: just one day.
Now, a new study finds that lightning strikes will become even more frequent as the planet warms, at least in the continental U.S.
For years scientists have been exploring how the steady warming of the planet might be impacting severe weather, though most of the attention has been placed on hazards like hurricanes and heavy downpours. And while those events are major killers, lightning is also a significant hazard. So far this year, 25 people have been killed by lightning strikes in the U.S., and lightning is the trigger for more than half of U.S. wildfires, putting pressure on human infrastructure as well as natural ecosystems.
But so far, relatively scant attention has been paid to how lightning might change as the planet’s temperature rises with the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And the studies that have been done to date estimate the increase in lightning to be anywhere from 5 to 100 percent per degree Celsius rise — a strikingly wide range.
The new study, detailed in the Nov. 13 issue of the journal Science, has found a relatively simple way to use other atmospheric factors to predict changes in lightning rates. The findings suggest that lighting rates will increase 12 percent per every degree Celsius (about 2°F) rise in global temperatures. That comes to a 50 percent increase by the end of the century.
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Link: http://www.wunderground.com/news/lightning-will-increase-warming-20141113
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