END TIMES WEATHER:Europe heating up quicker than thought

WESTERN Europe has heated up more than previously thought over the past century, according to a new study that adds to evidence pointing to a future of hotter summers and longer-lasting heatwaves.The study, published yesterday in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres,showed that the actual mean temperature since 1880 had risen 1.6C, not the 1.3C as previously thought,said Paul Della-Marta,a climate scientist at Switzerland's national weather service who led the study.“It is a big change when you consider it is an average temperature,”Mr Della-Marta said.The reason why previous estimates were too low was because before 1930 most temperatures were measured without the type of screens now in use that block radiation from the sun and ground that can skew a reading, he said.The study's findings may provide further evidence that heatwaves like the one that killed dozens this summer in Europe were a sign of global warming.
“It could be used as more evidence that temperatures are rising and we may beunderestimating impacts of human activity,”he said.Weather forecasters may also use the new data to help build climate models to help better predict the impact rising temperatures will have,Mr Della-Marta added.“We would expect the frequency and duration of heat waves to increase with global warming at an accelerated rate,” he said in a telephone interview.“It means it is getting hotter and that extreme events are getting more frequent.”The team,which also included researchers from the University of Bern,compiled temperature readings from more than 200 locations across Europe and found that heatwaves now lasted an average of three days compared to around 1.5 days in 1880.The researchers defined a heatwave as periods when temperatures rose above a certain level,which varied depending on the location.For example,the threshold was 30.7C in Paris and 35C in Madrid.Because many of the stations-which stretched from Sweden to Croatia-recorded temperatures in the same regions, the team was able to strip out off-the-mark temperatures and come up with a more accurate reading,Mr Della-Marta said.
“We applied statistical methods capable of identifying these changes."Our method looked carefully at the range and by comparing one station to another we found some that had problems with their temperatures.”
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22187153-23109,00.html
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