High Heat: The Wave of the Future?
Date: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 @ 07:52:17 UTC
Topic: General
 From Sci-Tech Today/Environment/August 4, 2006.
Climate models generally agree that looking ahead to 2100, heat waves will become more frequent. The models very closely reproduce the high temperatures and air pressures that spawn heat waves in real-life weather. In the future, global warming may create stronger and larger high-pressure "domes" of air that will block cool air from entering the regions they cover.
A preview of the future -- much hotter decades on a warming planet -- has been delivered today by the continent-spanning heat wave, climate experts say.
"Heat wave projections all agree. They are going to intensify in length and frequency" in this century, says climate scientist Claudia Tebaldi of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Global warming is projected to raise average temperatures worldwide about 3 to 9 degrees in this century, according to a U.N. climate panel. Warmer temperatures load the dice in favor of extreme weather such as heat waves, says climate modeler Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
Read the whole story here: Sci-Tech Today: Heat wave
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