Already-Toasty Sahara Desert Warming At 2-4X Rate Of Rest Of Tropics - Already Up 1C 1979-2012

[hatrack]

The searing Sahara Desert is getting even hotter, at a rate two to four times greater than the rest of the tropics, say scientists in a new study.

That puts it on par with the Arctic which is also exceeding the global warming average. But whereas the widely studied Arctic "amplification" melts sea ice and permafrost, the Sahara warming could be reducing the huge outflow of dust that blows off Africa and be causing big changes to regional weather — and local people.

"A lot of people live there – three million or so," said researcher Kerry Cook of the University of Texas at Austin. "And it's adjacent to the Sahel region, which has many more people."

EDIT

Cook and her coauthor Edward Vizy looked at five separate temperature data sets to glean what happened in the Sahara from 1979 to 2012. They found that whereas the warming in the Earth’s tropics is about a quarter of a degree Celsius, and global warming for the periods was a half degree Celsius, the warming in the Sahara Desert was more than 1 degree Celsius.

EDIT

http://news.discovery.com/earth/weather-extreme-events/saharan-heat-amped-up-by-climate-change-150817.htm