A study led by a Boulder scientist analyzed 90 years worth of data to reveal that summer climates in regions across the world are changing — mostly warming, though not always.
The report was released today by the University of Colorado, the headquarters of the
A study led by a Boulder scientist analyzed 90 years worth of data to reveal that summer climates in regions across the world are changing — mostly warming, though not always.
The report was released today by the University of Colorado, the headquarters of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It is the first time that we show on a local scale that there are significant changes in summer temperatures,” said lead author CIRES scientist Irina Mahlstein in a statement. “This result shows us that we are experiencing a new summer climate regime in some regions.”
The technique reveals location-by-location temperature changes rather than global averages, a technique that could provide insights into changes in ecosystems on a more regional scale and help understand changes to aninam and plant life.
The research team used climate observations recorded from 1920 to 2010 from around the globe. The “base period” was from 1920 to 1949 and was compared to other 30-year test intervals that started every 10 years since 1930. Their analysis found that some changes began to appear as early as the 1960s, and the observed changes were more prevalent in tropical areas. In these regions, temperatures varied little throughout the years, so the scientists could more easily detect any changes that did occur, according to Mahlstein.
The scientists found significant summer temperature changes in 40 percent of tropical areas and 20 percent of higher-latitude areas. In the majority of cases, the researchers observed warming summer temperatures, but in some cases they observed cooling summer temperatures.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or firstname.lastname@example.org