Science Source

Increases in extreme precipitation over the Northeast United States using high-resolution climate model simulations

The study uses a model with higher spatial resolution than previous studies to analyze September–November extreme precipitation in the US Northeast.
The model simulates much more realistic extreme precipitation, including frequency, amplitude, and temporal variability.
The model projects unprecedented rainfall events over the region by the mid-21st century due to human-caused climate change.
Very extreme events (>150 mm/day; 6 in/day) may be six times more likely by 2100 than in the early 21st

Satellites reveal hotspots of global river extent change

The study looks at eight hotspots of significant river changes, including:
- (1) eastern Siberia, (2) Tibetan Plateau, (3) middle northern Siberia, and (4) middle eastern Asia, where river flow increased, and
- (5) the Great Plains in central North America, (6) middle-eastern South America, (7) western Siberia, and (8) northern India, where river flow decreased
Climate change generally explains the contrasting pattern of river extent changes in these eight hotspots, except in middle Eastern Asia,

Long-term sea-ice measurements from the Fram Strait reveal that the dominant form of Arctic sea ice shifted around 2007, from thick and deformed ice to thinner, more uniform ice.
As a result of this shift, the proportion of thick, deformed ice fell by about half.
It has not yet recovered, and this is expected to affect heat and momentum exchange in the region.

“Ice is much more vulnerable than before because it’s thinner, it can easily melt."

Intense drought and heavy rainfall events occurred more often in the last eight years — the hottest years on record — than in the previous decade
Warmer global temperatures are increasing the extent, duration, and severity of these extremes, and are having more of an effect than natural climate patterns
The study provides an emerging picture of distortions in the total amount of water both above ground and also in aquifers deep beneath the Earth’s surface, where most of the freshwater that humans depend upon comes from