A study published recently in Nature Climate Change indicates that storm intensification predicted for 2080 has already started to happen over recent decades. The data shows that over the past 20 years, storms have been intensifying faster than can be explained by natural climatic behaviour alone.
Climate scientists researching climate change typically use around 30 massive, intricate computer networks that use computational models to calculate the state of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land and ice, capturing past and present climate variability and using the data to predict future climate change. The results are analysed and then form the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report.
The study findings will help climate scientists to correct any bias in the models and create a more accurate prediction of future climate patterns. It will also help scientists to get a better understanding of the intensification of winter storms over recent decades and thus a better understanding of the Earth’s climate. This in turn will enable them to more accurately predict the damage that climate change is expected to cause.