Future Forecast: Extreme Weather
Study Outlines a Climate Shift Caused by Global Warming
By Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
Saturday, October 21, 2006; Page A02
The world -- especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil -- is likely to suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts.
But the prediction of a future of nasty extreme weather also includes fewer freezes and a longer growing season.
In a preview of a major international multiyear report on climate change that comes out next year, a study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research details what nine of the world's top computer models predict for the lurching of climate at its most extreme.
"It's going to be a wild ride, especially for specific regions," said the study's lead author, Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the federally funded academic research center.
Tebaldi pointed to the Western United States, Mediterranean nations and Brazil as "hot spots" that will get extremes at their worst, according to the computer models....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001454.html