Global warming to bring more lightning and difficult wildfires

Warmer weathers thanks to Global Warming will increase the possibilities of wildfires started by more-frequent lightning strikes, Design & Trend reports, citing a new study led by Berkeley climate scientist David Romps.


Using 11 climate models, the researchers found that global warming will increase the chance of lightning strikes by 12 percent for every degree in Celsius that global average air temperature increases.


"Lightning is caused by charge separation within clouds, and to maximize charge separation, you have to loft more water vapor and heavy ice particles into the atmosphere," Romps said. "We already know that the faster the updrafts, the more lightning, and the more precipitation, the more lightning."


The change may not sound like a big deal, but it could become one considering how the planet is heating up. We may already see more thunders than our great grandparents. The atmosphere today is about 1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the late 1800s.
Since temperature records began in 1895, 2012 has been the warmest year. Romps' crew believes that there will be 50 percent more thunder strikes throughout the rest of the 21st century.

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