[Vision2020] National Center for Atmospheric Research: Record Daily High Temperatures Far Outpace Record Lows In US

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.physorg.com/news177254019.html

http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/maxmin.jsp

 [image: temps]
<http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/images/temps_2.jpg><http://www.fin.ucar.edu/netpub/server.np?find&site=imagelibrary&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=2122>

This graphic shows the ratio of record daily highs to record daily lows
observed at about 1,800 weather stations in the 48 contiguous United States
from January 1950 through September 2009. Each bar shows the proportion of
record highs (red) to record lows (blue) for each decade. The 1960s and
1970s saw slightly more record daily lows than highs, but in the last 30
years record highs have increasingly predominated, with the ratio now about
two-to-one for the 48 states as a whole.
[ENLARGE]<http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/images/temps_2.jpg>(©UCAR,
graphic by Mike Shibao.) News
media terms of use* <http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/maxmin.jsp#>

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More records ahead

In addition to surveying actual temperatures in recent decades, Meehl and
his co-authors turned to a sophisticated computer model of global climate to
determine how record high and low temperatures are likely to change during
the course of this century.

The modeling results indicate that if nations continue to increase their
emissions of greenhouse gases in a "business as usual" scenario, the U.S.
ratio of daily record high to record low temperatures would increase to
about 20-to-1 by mid-century and 50-to-1 by 2100. The mid-century ratio
could be much higher if emissions rose at an even greater pace, or it could
be about 8-to-1 if emissions were reduced significantly, the model showed.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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