Climatic warming and increased summer aridity in Florida, U.S.A.

✍ Scribed by James M. Coleman

• Book ID: 104637766
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 815 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0009
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00138937

✦ Synopsis

The impending trace-gas induced climatic warming is likely, at least in the near term, to result in a decrease in summertime convective activity in Florida, in turn producing a reduction in thunderstorm-derived precipitation. The phenomenon is expected to arise from the differential heating of continental land masses relative to the ocean resulting in a strengthening of the North Atlantic subtropical anticyclone. Precipitation shortfalls of 10-20% were recorded for some areas during Northern Hemispheric summer months a few tenths of a degree Celsius warmer than the normal for the period 1901-1980. Deficits somewhat greater than these may not be uncommon during a fullscale climatic warming depending on, among other factors, the rapidity of the warming. Precipitation resulting from tropical cyclones is not expected to have significant positive impact on the shortfall in the near term.