How does climate change influence humid heat waves? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how a phenomenon called atmospheric inversion could worsen humid heat waves across the United States, and specifically the Midwest. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the growing concerns of climate change and the steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers analyzed atmospheric data with the goal of better understanding humid heat waves, which traditionally occur in tropical regions. However, scientists have observed them occurring in higher latitude regions, possibly resulting from climate change. After careful analysis, the researchers ascertained that atmospheric inversions, which act as blankets trapping pollution at the surface, is responsible for greater amounts of humid heat waves, particularly in the United States Midwest region.
“In a future climate for the Midwest, they may experience both more severe thunderstorms and more extreme humid heat waves,” said Dr. Talia Tamarin-Brodsky, who is an assistant professor in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and co-author on the study. “Our theory gives an understanding of the limit for humid heat and severe convection for these communities that will be future heat wave and thunderstorm hotspots.”
This study comes as climate change continues to wreak havoc on weather patterns worldwide, including increased number and severity of weather events, specifically hurricanes and heat waves. Therefore, studies like this demonstrate the importance of taking climate change seriously and taking action to curb these effects before it’s too late.
What new insight into atmospheric inversion will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science Advances, EurekAlert!