Wednesday, May 07, 2014

More intense rains noted, again

Climate Change Study Finds U.S. Is Already Widely Affected - NYTimes.com

I see from this US report that changes in rainfall intensity seem to be already clear in parts of the US:
One of the report’s most striking findings concerned the rising frequency
of torrential rains. Scientists have expected this effect for decades
because more water is evaporating from a warming ocean surface, and the
warmer atmosphere can hold the excess vapor, which then falls as rain or
snow. But even the leading experts have been surprised by the extent of
the changes.

The report found that the eastern half of the country is receiving more
precipitation in general. And over the past half-century, the proportion
of precipitation that is falling in very heavy rain events has jumped
by 71 percent in the Northeast, by 37 percent in the Midwest and by 27
percent in the Southeast, the report found.

“It’s a big change,” said Radley M. Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia
University who helped write the report. He added that scientists do not
fully understand the regional variations.

In recent years, sudden, intense rains have caused extensive damage.

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