bigger storms

nice little bit of reading here on the climate change thing.  i’ve said what Carl said, we’re doomed.  this paper says 2055 gets interesting.  NE conus and western europe get the big storms.  excellent simulations with and without ice melt, etc.  in sum: the hotter we make the planet, the bigger the storms will get. in science-speak,

Increased baroclinicity produced by a stronger tempera- ture gradient provides energy for more severe weather events. Many of the most significant and devastating storms in east- ern North America and western Europe, popularly known as superstorms, have been winter cyclonic storms, though sometimes occurring in late fall or early spring, that gener- ate near-hurricane-force winds and often large amounts of snowfall (Chapter 11, Hansen, 2009). Continued warming of low-latitude oceans in coming decades will provide a larger water vapor repository that can strengthen such storms. If this tropical warming is combined with a cooler North At- lantic Ocean from AMOC slowdown and an increase in mid- latitude eddy energy (Fig. 21), we can anticipate more se- vere baroclinic storms. Increased high pressure due to cooler high-latitude ocean (Fig. 20) can make blocking situations more extreme, with a steeper pressure gradient between the storm’s low-pressure center and the blocking high, thus driv- ing stronger North Atlantic storms.

the good news? their models agree with my theory that eastern pacific will maintain it’s temp.  real estate potential, jes sayin…

2055

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