Rising Temperature Difference Between Hemispheres Could Dramatically Shift Rainfall Patterns [View all]
Rising Temperature Difference Between Hemispheres Could Dramatically Shift Rainfall Patterns in Tropics
One often ignored consequence of global climate change is that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere, which could significantly alter tropical precipitation patterns, according to a new study by climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, Seattle.
"A key finding is a tendency to shift tropical rainfall northward, which could mean increases in monsoon weather systems in Asia or shifts of the wet season from south to north in Africa and South America," said UC Berkeley graduate student Andrew R. Friedman, who led the analysis.
"Tropical rainfall likes the warmer hemisphere," summed up John Chiang, UC Berkeley associate professor of geography and a member of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center. "As a result, tropical rainfall cares a lot about the temperature difference between the two hemispheres."
As global temperatures rose over the course of the 20th century (top), the temperature between the two hemispheres changed little until the 1980s, though it has been rising since.