00:00On Climate in the News today, first a look at an analysis of data showing that the rate
00:04of climate change has increased, and then a look at a new study that quantifies the
00:09impact of low clouds on global warming.
00:12Brett, our first story is from Science Daily, and they do an analysis, scientists here,
00:16of the data set of temperature back many, many decades, and they found that the rate
00:20in which temperatures are increasing has really accelerated in the last 10 years.
00:24Yeah, between 1970 and 2015, our rate was 0.36 Fahrenheit, it doesn't sound like much,
00:31per decade of warming.
00:33However, since 2015, it's nearly doubled, 0.63 Fahrenheit per decade increase.
00:39That's a significant increase.
00:40Obviously, certain things play a role in this, like El Nino, but it seems like in this study
00:43that those have been removed, right, to better quantify it?
00:46Yeah, to better quantify these, we have to remove the natural effects of warming, such
00:51as El Nino, solar cycles, of course, and volcanic eruptions, which have a major impact, but short-term
00:56impact on global temperature.
00:58This was an interesting study, because it looked back at data all the way since the
01:02instrument record began, which is in the late 1800s.
01:05Yeah.
01:05This also confirmed that 2023 and 2024 are the warmest years on record, and it also appears
01:11that this has some longer-term consequences with potentially having us surpass thresholds
01:17where we're concerned about, right?
01:18Yeah, the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5 warming past pre-industrial levels could be
01:26surpassed by 2030, and it would not surprise me at all, because I think 2026 is going to
01:32be the warmest year on record, and 2027 will probably surpass that.
01:35And that's due to what we think will be a super El Nino developing in the Pacific Ocean.
01:39Our second story today is from Caltech, a new study on low-level clouds and how less of
01:47those has caused an increase in the global warming rate, and it's a really interesting
01:52study of a lot of different simulations of how clouds behave over the ocean spread.
01:55Yes.
01:56So low clouds are important to keep us cool, especially during the day, not at night.
02:00Low clouds actually act as a blanket at night, but during the day, they reflect more of the
02:05sun's light back to space, leading to a cooling effect.
02:08What they're finding here is high concentrations of CO2 could be having a much more greater impact
02:15on the formation of low clouds.
02:17So why is that?
02:18It sounds like there's probably like a positive feedback loop, right, that gets created.
02:22Yeah.
02:22So with global warming, we're seeing a much more record warmth in the oceans here.
02:27So that's leading to fewer low clouds.
02:30Less low clouds means less reflected light in a warmer planet.
02:34So a positive feedback loop.
02:35Yeah.
02:35And that positive feedback loop certainly then ties to our first article about how the
02:39increase in global warming has accelerated.
02:43It also sort of seems like as a summary here that clouds are more sensitive than we think
02:47thought to CO2 concentrations.
02:49They're much more sensitive than we thought.
02:51And again, what they're seeing is here a thinning of these low clouds.
02:54So in certain parts of the world, obviously that's not the case, but in general, especially
02:59over the Pacific, that's what they're seeing.
03:01Yeah.
03:01So an interesting combination here of this new study on low clouds really tying into that
03:05rate of global warming increasing.
03:07Yep.
03:08Thank you, Brett.
03:08For other stories and information about climate, you can find those at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
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