HEat Waves MAy Become Commonplace in U.S. Within 30 Years

July 9th, 2010

More evidence that short sample sizes can be skewed to look like anything. Oh wait…did I just say that? This is always my first thought when I read a title such as this. That the sample size is way too small to draw very conclusive results. I don’t disregard them mind you, but I definitely have the thought in my mind before I delve into the study and their conclusions.

So…what do we have on tap in this study?

Stanford University climate scientists say:

“Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and the lead author of the study.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Diffenbaugh concluded that hot temperature extremes could become frequent events in the U.S. by 2039, posing serious risks to agriculture and human health.

“In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities,” said Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields.”

You can read more about the study here. I will say that this study revolves around no date mentioned before 1850. Most f the data stems from the 1950s to present from a quick glance. You probably don’t need any depression treatment for these results I would guess.