A new study finds that tropical areas often thought to be safe from the effects of climate change are actually experiencing significant changes in rainfall and extreme temperature events.
A new study finds that tropical areas often thought to be safe from the effects of climate change are actually experiencing significant changes in rainfall and extreme temperature events.
Researchers studied climate events at the La Selva research station in Costa Rica and the El Verde field station in Puerto Rico. They found that, while average temperatures were not changing much over time, the two locations did experience significantly more days of extreme heat in 2024 compared to long-term data stretching back to 1992.
“In La Selva prior to 2024, you had an average of eight hot days – days where the temperature exceeded the 95th percentile of temperatures at that site – per year,” said Alonso Ramirez, lead author of the study and a professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. “Now that number is up to 30. These spikes in temperature are becoming more severe and more common.”
Read More: North Carolina State University
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