Residents of the eastern United States may see average summer temperatures rise by 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 degrees Celsius) during the next 80 years, a new NASA study suggests.
The culprit is greenhouse gas emissions—the release of gases linked to global warming—the report says.
(Related: "Global Warming: How Hot? How Soon?" [July 27, 2005].)
"There is the potential for extremely hot summertime temperatures in the future, especially during summers with less-than-average frequent rainfall," said lead author Barry Lynn of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University.
Eastern U.S. states currently average summer daily highs in the low to mid-80s Fahrenheit (27 to 30 degrees Celsius).
But the new research suggests that average high temperatures could reach the low to mid-90s Fahrenheit (32 to 36 degrees Celsius) in a typical summer by the 2080s.
In extremely dry years, Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; and other cities could experience July and August daily highs between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 to 43.3 Celsius).
NASA's model incorporated three decades of temperature and rainfall observations to estimate future rainfall totals. It also took into account the time of day when precipitation is likely to occur—a key factor in how much rain falls and cools off the Earth.
(Interactive graphic: how global warming works.)
Sweat Locally
Jay Gulledge is a senior research fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change outside Washington, D.C.
While the study's temperature-change numbers may seem shocking, Gulledge said, they simply represent a different kind of model.
|
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
|
