The research shows that for every degree of global or regional warming, winter rainfall increases by a compounding 7%, increasing the risk of flooding.
The research shows that for every degree of global or regional warming, winter rainfall increases by a compounding 7%, increasing the risk of flooding. And the scientists warn, it is happening much faster than most global climate models predict.
They looked at UK winter rainfall from 1901 to 2023 to investigate if the observed changes in winter rainfall in the UK are due to shifts in weather patterns (dynamical), or due to a warmer atmosphere being able to hold more moisture and produce more intense and larger rainstorms (non-dynamical or thermodynamic component).
Published in the journal Geophysical research Letters, the results show that the observed increase in winter rainfall in the UK is driven by rising temperatures from anthropogenic warming, rather than by changes in weather patterns. The volume of rainfall across the UK each winter is increasing by about 7% per degree of warming, which is consistent with the expected rate of moisture increase in a warmer atmosphere.
Read more at: Newcastle University
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