Relatively small changes to the climate in some parts of the world can be more obvious than larger changes elsewhere, according to a new study.
A team led by the University of Reading looked at how climate change has already changed temperatures and rainfall patterns worldwide to the point that they would be unfamiliar to people living at the end of the 19th century. Crucially, they then examined how these changes compared with climate fluctuations already experienced in different regions of the globe.
They found mid-latitude countries like the UK and US were experiencing relatively large changes in temperature compared to tropical regions, but the experience of these changes were being masked by the fact the weather in these countries is more erratic.
Conversely, the smaller changes in countries in the tropics were found to be the most obvious and may be having a greater impact on society because people are used to a generally more settled climate.
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