Green Jersey

Report: Warming means more downpours

When it's warmer and it rains, it pours.

Studies have already found a link between global warming and increased rainfall. A new study has found a strong link between warming and extremely heavy rains, and determined that it may pour more in the (warmer) future than scientists had predicted.

And, because global warming has a strong sense of irony, higher-precipitation areas would see more of these downpours; dry areas like deserts would experience less rain than they do already, according to the study’s findings, via Scientific American.

Associate Professor Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers commented on the findings. From the New York Times:

While a general relationship between warming and more flooding rains is already widely accepted, the new paper is important “because it uses observations to demonstrate the sensitivity of extreme rainfall to temperature,” said Anthony J. Broccoli, the director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University.

“Such changes in extreme rainfall are quite important in my view, as flash flooding is produced by the extreme rain events,” Dr. Broccoli added. “In the U.S., flooding is a greater cause of death than lightning or tornadoes, and presumably poses similar risks elsewhere.”

Downpours can cause disease, economic slowdowns and other problems in developing countries. Brian Soden, one of the study’s authors, said richer countries with better infrastructure would be better able to cope with more heavy rains, which is to be expected.

The study was published Thursday in Science Express (for an abstract, click here ).