A very rough interpretation: Climate change puts more CO2 into the air. This traps heat into the air. This also allows more water into the air. Water is a great heat sink so it allows more thermal energy into the atmosphere.
All of this drives more extreme weather. Hotter summers, more extreme weather fluctuations, which leads to colder winters (hotter on average but can get more extreme), higher winds due to temperature disparity, and generally more precipitation. All of this drives more visible fluctuations like more and bigger tropical storms (hurricanes, typhoons), changes weather patterns leading to droughts, etc.
You can see trends for things like storms, wildfires, droughts, etc all going up.
Thanks. I understand the mechanisms of climate change on a basic level, I just hadn’t thought what occurred in Hawaii was due to extreme weather caused by climate change.
Dry and windy, as another said. It’s just exacerbating the weather extremes and making them more common. There were 70+ MPH winds blowing embers everywhere in this instance.
There’s been at least one study in Nature describing increased winds due to climate change. It seems likely that effect contributed here. Assessing contribution from climate change to individual weather events is a headache, though. If anything on this one ultimately gets published, then I think it will take awhile longer before it happens.
Honest question, what was the role of climate change in the Hawaii fires? Are they having a particularly dry summer?
yup, dry and windy.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/its-very-windy-and-dry-in-hawaii-strong-gusts-complicate-wildfires-and-prompt-evacuations/articleshow/102560202.cms?from=mdr
A very rough interpretation: Climate change puts more CO2 into the air. This traps heat into the air. This also allows more water into the air. Water is a great heat sink so it allows more thermal energy into the atmosphere.
All of this drives more extreme weather. Hotter summers, more extreme weather fluctuations, which leads to colder winters (hotter on average but can get more extreme), higher winds due to temperature disparity, and generally more precipitation. All of this drives more visible fluctuations like more and bigger tropical storms (hurricanes, typhoons), changes weather patterns leading to droughts, etc.
You can see trends for things like storms, wildfires, droughts, etc all going up.
Thanks. I understand the mechanisms of climate change on a basic level, I just hadn’t thought what occurred in Hawaii was due to extreme weather caused by climate change.
Dry and windy, as another said. It’s just exacerbating the weather extremes and making them more common. There were 70+ MPH winds blowing embers everywhere in this instance.
There’s been at least one study in Nature describing increased winds due to climate change. It seems likely that effect contributed here. Assessing contribution from climate change to individual weather events is a headache, though. If anything on this one ultimately gets published, then I think it will take awhile longer before it happens.