precipitation vs temperature
Digital Art on Metal 40" W X 30" H
For data sources on the science click here.
THE SCIENCE
WHAT'S ALARMING
“It is virtually certain that, in the long term, global precipitation will increase with increased global mean surface temperature.”*
Rising temperatures caused by CO2 emissions increase water vapor and global precipitation. Most of the warmth generated by these emissions is absorbed by the oceans, which also has the effect of increasing evaporation and precipitation.
The figure shows actual and modeled changes for 5-year overlapping decades: 2006-2015, 2011-2020 - up to 2090-2100, in each case relative to the measuring base period 1986-2005.
Collins, M., R. Knutti, J. Arblaster, J.-L. Dufresne, T. Fichefet, P. Friedlingstein, X. Gao, W.J. Gutowski, T. Johns, G. Krinner, M. Shongwe, C. Tebaldi, A.J. Weaver and M. Wehner, 2013: Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1029–1136, doi:10.1017/CBO9781107415324.024.