Climate change, rivers and rainfall: recent research on climate change science from the Hadley Centre
The global average temperature for 2004 was around 0.75 °C above that at the end of the 19th century, making it the fourth warmest year on record. There is now strong evidence that extremes of rainfall over land have changed during recent decades. However, some areas do experience changes opposite to the global average trends. There is evidence that human Activity is changing river flows, both directly through global warming and through the effect of increasing carbon dioxide on plant behaviour.
Predictions from Hadley Centre climate models show that further increases in temperature and rainfall are expected during the 21st century. Temperature is expected to increase almost
everywhere but with rainfall the pattern of change is more variable — it will increase in some areas but decrease in others.
Format: Digital (Free) (ill., charts, maps)