NCAR - 2/3 Of Western US "Significantly Drier" By 2030 - Prolonged Droughts More Likely Worldwide

[hatrack]

BOULDER, Colorado, October 21, 2010 (ENS) - Global warming will bring on severe and prolonged drought across the United States and many other heavily populated countries within 30 years, finds a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Aiguo Dai, with NCAR's Climate and Global Dynamics Division in Boulder, concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years, possibly reaching a scale in some regions by the end of the century that has rarely, if ever, been observed in modern times.
Dr. Aiguo Dai (Photo courtesy NCAR)

"We are facing the possibility of widespread drought in the coming decades, but this has yet to be fully recognized by both the public and the climate change research community," Dai said today. "If the projections in this study come even close to being realized, the consequences for society worldwide will be enormous." Most of the western two-thirds of the United States will be significantly drier by the 2030s, Dai's study shows. Large parts of the nation may face an increasing risk of extreme drought during the century.

Using an ensemble of 22 computer climate models and a comprehensive index of drought conditions, as well as analyses of previously published studies, Dai found that most of the Western Hemisphere, along with large parts of Eurasia, Africa, and Australia, will be at risk of extreme drought this century. By contrast, higher-latitude regions from Alaska to Scandinavia are likely to become more moist.

Dai cautioned that his findings are based on the best current projections of greenhouse gas emissions. What actually happens in coming decades will depend on many factors, including actual future emissions of greenhouse gases as well as natural climate cycles such as El Niño.


EDIT

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2010/2010-10-21-01.html

[LiberalLoner]

1. This is really scary. I predict widespread famine if these predictions are true. K&R