2008-06-16
New Climate Model Warns of U.S. Megadrought. Asian News International [South Asia], June 16, 2008. "According to a report in New Scientist, [scientists] at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln [have] built [a] climate model to simulate the way changes in sea surface temperature of a few degrees in the Atlantic or Pacific can disrupt atmospheric circulation over North America. Such shifts caused droughts such as the 1930s Dust Bowl, which followed a cooling of the tropical Pacific [and]... the megadrought that affected North America from AD 800 to 1250. The team found that the impact of these sea surface temperature changes differs by season... A change in the Pacific would hit mainly in winter: ocean cooling of 3 °C would reduce the occurrence of winter storms. Meanwhile... changes in the Atlantic would strike mainly in summer: warming of 1 °C would reduce the transport of moisture to the [central U.S.] Great Plains... and western parts of the continent. 'When both these effects occur together, North America suffers a megadrought,' according to [Song Feng, the study's author]. Though the occurrence of such droughts is normal, Feng has warned that global warming may hasten their arrival."
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