The future of Heat Waves..

Source:

Stanford University; July 9, 2010

Summary:

Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by climate scientists.

"Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades," said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and the lead author of the study.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Diffenbaugh concluded that hot temperature extremes could become frequent events in the U.S. by 2039, posing serious risks to agriculture and human health.

"In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities," said Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. "Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields."

"Our results suggest that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial conditions may not be sufficient to avoid serious increases in severely hot conditions," Diffenbaugh said.

Stanford University. (2010, July 9). Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 5, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100708122617.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100708122617.htm




I like this article because it amazes me how far into the future scientists try to predict things that will supposedly happen. I do appreciate the research that is being done though because at least we can see what changes need to be made in order to preserve our climates and our natural resources. Heat waves don't just cause a little sweat on ones brow, it diminishes crops, causes death (in some cases) and strips natural resources of their will to fight.