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When It Rains, It Pours

Climate change will increase extreme rainfall, says study

Posted at 12:21 PM on 08 Aug 2008

Rain.
Photo: Ali Nishan
Climate change will likely lead to more powerful rainstorms, says a new study published in Science. Computer models may "substantially" underestimate the number of heavy rainfalls that will occur in a warming world, say scientists who researched naturally occurring weather events during El Niño patterns between 1987 and 2004. "A warmer atmosphere contains larger amounts of moisture which boosts the intensity of heavy downpours," explains coauthor Brian Soden. Those deluges won't give relief to desert regions but will happen in rainy areas, say researchers, increasing the chance of flooding, crop damage, erosion, and spread of infectious disease.

sources:  Environment News Service, The Guardian, National Geographic News, USA Today, ScienceDaily, The Telegraph

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Comments: (2 comments)

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Since 1820...


This seems to be the new "hot trend" in computer climate forcasting...the whole amplification of extremes (amplification now enters the AGW lexicon along with "forcings").

The thing is, historically it just ain't true.

It's the temperate and polar zones which are colder that have been getting warmer summers and more mild winters.

I don't see that the tropic zones are having super extreme heat or more rainfall.  In fact, hurricane activity has vanished pretty much for example.

no storms in my backyard, Jack

"I don't see that the tropic zones are having super extreme heat or more rainfall. In fact, hurricane activity has vanished"

And where might you be living?  Not in the tropics, I'll be bound. There's Typhoon Neoguri,perhaps the strongest typhoon to strike China since 1949. There's Nargis in the Bay of Bengal the most devastating cyclone to strike Asia since 1991. There's Fengshen that made landfall in the eastern Philippines, bringing heavy rain and strong winds and causing widespread floods and landslides that left 224 people dead.  It also contributed to the death of almost 900 people in an overturned ferry.

Last year we in the Philippines were subjected to a slew of destructive storms, floods and droughts. Material damage ran into the billions and too many people died. It's hotter too - up to 32 isn't too bad, 33 is getting warm and by the itme it's 34 even the Filipinos are complaining.  It went over 36 this year.

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