, °F

Radar & Maps

News & Video

Extreme Weather

Social

Personalized Forecasts

A.M. Planner

Home & Garden

Sports & Recreation

Health

Miscellaneous

Featured Forecast

My Favorite Forecasts

    New York, NY

    Local Weather

    My Recent Locations

    Global climate change

    Climate change may lead to longer and wider atmospheric rivers

    By Brett Anderson, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
    5/30/2018, 11:38:57 AM

    Share this article:

    New research from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicates that climate change will cause atmospheric rivers to become increasingly longer and wider by the end of this century.

    Graphic courtesy of NOAA.

    Atmospheric rivers are long, and narrow (250-375 miles wide) jets of air that carry massive amounts of water vapor from the tropics to regions that can be located as far away as the middle and high latitudes.

    Atmospheric rivers can bring much needed precipitation but can also be responsible for major flooding and extreme snowfall.

    An example of an atmospheric river (circled) impacting the U.S. West Coast. Image courtesy NOAA.

    The research team, led by Duane Waliser of NASA's JPL, stated that the results of this study are based on the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions will continue at the current rate.

    Even though atmospheric rivers will likely become longer and wider, the results showed that there will be about a 10 percent decrease in atmospheric rivers globally by the end of the 21st century.

    Regardless of the decrease, the trend toward longer and wider atmospheric rivers is expected to produce a 50 percent increase in heavy rain and strong wind events globally. In addition, the frequency of the most intense atmospheric rivers may nearly double by the end of the 21st century.

    --------

    For information on how the research team cam to their conclusions, see the NASA News report.

    The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

    Comments

    Comments that don't add to the conversation may be automatically or manually removed by Facebook or AccuWeather. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.

    Global climate change

    More Weather Blogs

    ABOUT THIS BLOG

    Brett Anderson

    Global climate change

    In the AccuWeather climate change blog, you will find links to the latest research and commentary by experts with various points of view.