Greenhouse gases led to increase in deluges, researchers say

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases helped trigger the increase in extreme rain events seen in North America over the second half of the 20th century, a group of climate scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

In a second Nature paper, another group reported that human greenhouse gas emissions likely contributed to the horrendous floods that inundated England and Wales in the fall of 2000. Those scientists ran sophisticated climate simulations across a network of tens of thousands of home computers that volunteers loaded with climate-modeling software.

"Human influence on the climate system has the effect of intensifying precipitation extremes," said Francis Zwiers, a climate researcher at Environment Canada in Toronto and lead researcher on the first study...

With the number and intensity of extreme deluges expected to climb, climate scientists and meteorologist are rushing to build better flood prediction systems, particularly for the developing world. On Monday, The Post reported on one scientist's assertion that last summer's floods in Pakistan could have been predicted - and the populace warned - if available data had been heeded.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/post-carbon/2011/02/green_house_gases_led_to_incre.html?hpid=topnews

good find Joe!

but still there's a long way to go in regards of the dynamics/outcome of global warming, hydrological cycle and perhaps most especially about the role of back coupling effects from clouds...


from a complete personal standpoint I'm happy about the need of better flood prediction systems