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IMAGE: Changes in average start dates and lengths of the four seasons in the Northern
Hemisphere mid-latitudes for 1952, 2011 and 2100. view more
Credit: Wang et al 2020/Geophysical Research Letters/AGU.
WASHINGTON Without efforts to mitigate climate change, summers spanning nearly six months may become the new normal by 2100 in the Northern Hemisphere, according to a new study. The change would likely have far-reaching impacts on agriculture, human health and the environment, according to the study authors.
In the 1950s in the Northern Hemisphere, the four seasons arrived in a predictable and fairly even pattern. But climate change is now driving dramatic and irregular changes to the length and start dates of the seasons, which may become more extreme in the future under a business-as-usual climate scenario.
Global warming is having major effects on the Yukon, shown here. (Duane Froese / University of Alberta)
(CN) As climate change receives more attention across the globe, it’s crucial that scientists and researchers have the most accurate data possible on global temperatures. Researchers out of China’s Sun Yat-Sen University released Thursday a newly merged global surface temperature dataset to assist in climate research.
Part of the difficulty in creating an accurate picture is the lack of observational data in some regions such as the Arctic or high-altitude areas like the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, making it difficult to assess temperature variations adequately and consistently across the globe.
Credit: Qingxiang Li
Earth is warming rapidly, but there is too little observational data in some regions such as the Arctic or high-altitude areas like the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau to adequately and consistently assess temperature variations across the globe. To better understand how temperatures have increased, an international team led by researchers at Sun Yat-Sen University in China has released a newly merged global surface temperature dataset, including reconstructed land and marine measurements from the 1850s to 2018. The study provides evidence that there was a consistent increased warming trend compared with previous estimations, which closely matches the available observational data and updated simulations covering the past two decades.