Article: Signs Of The Last Times
WASHINGTON - Droughts will get drier, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with a warming climate across North America, U.S. government experts said in a report billed as the first continental assessment of extreme events.
Events that have seemed relatively rare will become commonplace, said the latest report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a joint effort of more than a dozen government agencies.
"Heat waves and heavy downpours are very likely to further increase in frequency and intensity," the report stated. "Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity. Hurricane wind speeds, rainfall intensity and storm surge levels are likely to increase. The strongest cold season storms are likely to become more frequent, with stronger winds and more extreme wave heights."
"When it rains, it rains harder and when it's not raining, it's warmer - there is more evaporation, and droughts can last longer," he explained.
"A day so hot that it is experienced only once every 20 years would occur every three years by the middle of the century," under the mid-range projections of climate models, the report said.
Other future projections cited in the report include:
- Sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in summer in coming decades;
- Precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent but more intense;
- Droughts will likely be more frequent and severe in some areas;
- Hurricanes will likely spawn increased precipitation and wind;
- The strongest cold-season Atlantic and Pacific storms are likely to create stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights.
