How exactly does climate change translate into more intense storms?
From a scientific standpoint, how does global warming lead to more powerful storms.
From a scientific standpoint, how does global warming lead to more powerful storms.
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Answers ( 1 )
The short version is that heat is thermal energy. When temperature rises there is more thermal energy in the climate system and that adds energy to all the components of the climate system including storms.
There is now good observational evidence that human caused climate change is increasing the extremes of storms particularly with respect to rainfall. The hydrological cycle is the exchange of water between different parts of the environment. Higher temperatures lead to more evaporation and more water in the atmosphere. This leads to greater rainfall. However, the excess rainfall can also lead to less atmospheric water elsewhere and that leads to droughts.
Overall climate is complex non-linear dynamic thermodynamic system where everything is interrelated, so changing the base temperature of such as system has complex outcomes that are difficult to predict.