It's no secret that Earth's average global temperature is rising, with 2014 slated to be the hottest year on record, but new research shows that temperature anomalies - readings well above or below the mean - are warming even faster than the overall average.
"Average temperatures don't tell us everything we need to know about climate change," lead study author Scott M. Robeson, of Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a statement. "Arguably, these cold extremes and warm extremes are the most important factors for human society."
By analyzing temperature records from 1881 to 2013, Robeson and his colleagues found that while cold anomalies increased more so than warm anomalies, narrowing Earth's temperature range, in the past 30 years this pattern has reversed, with warm anomalies increasing at a faster rate.
"Earth's temperature was becoming more homogenous with time," Robeson explained, "but now it's not."
Overall, temperatures at these cold and warm extremes increased more than the overall average Earth temperature. This could potentially impact factors like water supplies, agricultural productivity and human health.
And unfortunately for the Northern Hemisphere (which has more land mass than the Southern Hemisphere), it can expect more volatile temperatures - like heatwaves in Europe or extreme winter weather in North America, for example.
But what about this supposed 16-year "pause" in global warming? Researchers examined anomalies during this time period as well, and explain that while warming did occur in most of the world since 1998, it was offset by strong cooling during winter months in the Northern Hemisphere.
"There really hasn't been a pause in global warming," Robeson said. "There's been a pause in Northern Hemisphere winter warming."
Some believe that this slowdown was the result of a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, when in reality it was due to a natural cooling fluctuation, tracing back to the Arctic's influence on the jet stream.
So though the rate of planetary warming has slowed in the past 16 years, it hasn't stopped. Robeson and his team hope that by better understanding spatial patterns of temperature anomalies they can shed light on what the Earth can expect in the future of climate change, especially in terms of recent extreme weather, which may be the new norm, according to the World Bank.
"Improved understanding of the spatial patterns of change over the three periods studied are vital for understanding the causes of recent events," added co-author Phil D. Jones.
The findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
© 2024 NatureWorldNews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
