New paper from Hansen and co-authors predicts extreme weather events will increase with warming, and will have serious consequences. Summary includes:
Quote:
Practical effects of the increasingly loaded climate dice are likely to occur via amplification of extremes of the water cycle. Higher temperatures exacerbate hot dry conditions, but higher temperatures also increase the amount of water vapor that the atmosphere can hold. Increased water vapor leads to heavier rainfall and floods as well as the potential for stronger storms driven by latent heat including thunderstorms, tornadoes and tropical storms.
There's abstract, and link to download pdf of the paper, at:
Public Perception of Climate Change and the New Climate Dice