Wind Speeds Increasing Over Oceans Could Be Causing More Rain: Study

WASHINGTON -- During the last quarter-century, average wind speeds have increased over the world's oceans, as have wave heights, generating rougher seas, researchers reported in a study published online Thursday.

Since faster winds cause more evaporation, the increase could lead to more water vapor in the air, compounding any increase from global warming and providing added moisture for rain. Generally, that means a higher chance for rainfall.

Researchers led by Ian Young of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia report in the journal Science that over a 23-year period, average wind speed over the oceans rose by 0.25 percent per year.

The proportion of increase in wave height was less than for wind speed, the researchers noted, while the increase for extreme winds was more than for average winds.

The researchers said the higher winds aren't necessarily the result of global warming.

But Eugene S. Takle, director of the climate science program at Iowa State University, and not part of Young's research team, noted that evaporation rises with higher wind speeds, so the result would be more moisture in the air even without global warming. And the warming shown in many studies would also increase evaporation.

Just two years ago, Takle and colleagues published a study of wind speeds over land showing a decrease, rather than the increase Young's team found in its measurements from satellites and buoys. Young studied satellite records from 1985 to 2010, though records for 1990-91 were not available because of satellite problems.

"I don't think these results provide a clear contradiction to our findings of declining wind speeds over land, since measurements are made in different environments," said Takle.

He noted that the day-to-night changes in temperature are different over land than over water and the boundary layer – the portion of the atmosphere that most closely interacts with the surface – is generally thicker over land than water.

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Array

Comments

[ShawnRay]

06:02 PM on 04/01/2011

Global warming is a myth created by bunk statistics

[jimboy71]

08:44 PM on 04/03/2011

I didn't know stats could create anything. Do they pay taxes?

[dragonmaster]

06:53 AM on 03/29/2011

This is possible- but the increased energy in the atmosphere from GHG- which is causing warming, adds more water vapor.

[PotomacOracle]

05:49 PM on 03/31/2011

And, with the vast increase in oil and gas drilling over the past thirty years there's been a correspondent increase in atmospheric methane. Water vapor is one of methane's oxidants. The other source of Atmospheric methane is from ch4 dissociation. As oceans along continental shelves warm and as Permafrost thaws, ch4's stability zone is disturbed and hydrates dissociate sometimes gently sometimes violently. Methane and CO2 are released and the cycle begins and will not stop.

[PotomacOracle]

05:59 PM on 03/31/2011

The hydrates cannot form in the absence of fresh water. And the only fresh water under the crust is that ut there by the oil & gas and gcoal industry. My theory is that these abandoned wells aqnd the current EOR and fracking processes pump hundreds of millions of gallons of fresh wqter mixed with a chemical soup into the bore hoels underthe crust and poof methane hydrate formation. You will read in scholarly research papers the word "natural" methane hydrates. I would love to read the proof that fresh water under the earth' s crust is a natural occurrence.

[Aquest]

08:31 PM on 03/27/2011

And was is causing the increase of wind speeds?

The fact about global warming is that more energy is being put into the system. Isn't increased wind speeds another indication of this?

[Robco1]

01:46 PM on 03/28/2011

Exactly. You just can't argue with physics, can you?

[Bellla]

11:47 AM on 03/27/2011

Ah! (it's only the wind....)

[FTracy3]

09:52 AM on 03/27/2011

Top scientists have concluded that the increased rainfall is caused by clouds.

[jimboy71]

10:24 AM on 03/30/2011

I doubt it. Clouds in and of themselves do not necessarily indicate an increase in rainfall. Rainfall is dictated by the saturation point of the air, which is relative to temperature. When the relative humidity nears 100%, you get rain.

You can have clouds all day with no precipitation.

[ersf]

01:11 AM on 03/27/2011

You mean it's not going to stop raining? How long will this last?

[PotomacOracle]

06:20 PM on 03/31/2011

F & F I luv it

[Kasado]

02:56 PM on 03/26/2011

Cool, tropical forest earth. Will there be elves, faires, gnomes, goblins?

[ILoveFiction]

08:15 PM on 03/26/2011

Trolls?

[ghost geezer]

02:09 AM on 03/27/2011

Oh indeed. The very last to go.

[terramartom]

10:41 AM on 03/26/2011

So buy an umbrella!

[levresamant]

08:32 AM on 03/26/2011

Everything is coming together. Bye Bye Humans.

[Nancy Erickson Nan]

09:40 AM on 03/26/2011

you forgot to say goodbye to all the sea life too!!! bye, bye dolphins, whales, everything....

[ghost geezer]

02:10 AM on 03/27/2011

FIght, Nancy, fight. Fanned for this.

[fumes]

07:33 PM on 03/26/2011

chill..

we're turning eiffel's tower off..

for one whole hour!

that should do it..

[taandersson]

05:50 AM on 03/26/2011

The pressure gradient force, which arises from the uneven heating of earth's surface causes wind. (wikianswers)

The world's oceans are warming up and the rise is both significant and real, according to one of the most comprehensive studies into marine temperature data gathered over the past two decades. (The Independent 5/20/2010)

Let me put 1+1 together and guess it's a result of global warming.

[The last sane American]

07:42 AM on 03/26/2011

I see a green car, driving down the street

Oh there is a red car driving down the street.

Well it is clear that they must know each other.

[carmenalex]

01:45 PM on 03/26/2011

look, the guy in the green car waved at the chick in the red car....gasp..they are parking at the same driveway....GASP..they are making out!!!!...but nah...they don't seem to know each other at all.

[jimboy71]

10:26 AM on 03/30/2011

Hume by any other name...

[MexiChick67]

04:00 AM on 03/26/2011

Time to build more off shore wind mills.

[fumes]

02:32 AM on 03/26/2011

wind..

as a forcing..

hmm.

[ILoveFiction]

03:02 AM on 03/26/2011

That should be good for about 50 responses.

[The last sane American]

07:44 AM on 03/26/2011

A day and a half garnered only 75. Sorry your predictive powers are slipping.

[Mississippi Red]

02:08 AM on 03/26/2011

Interesting but, I am not aware of any method of determining wind speeds over the centuries- so without putting this into some kind of broader historical context, this doesn't seem to mean so much. With temps, moisture, climate chemistry, ocean chemistry, changes in plant communities, etc there are methods to track changes over long periods of time to put today's findings into context. Still really interesting and maybe worth reading the actual publication to get the real story.

[The last sane American]

07:45 AM on 03/26/2011

More hot air

[ghost geezer]

02:14 AM on 03/27/2011

Yup. and right on schedule. The cherry picking denial brigade, and the name says
it all.

[sslaughter]

06:50 PM on 03/28/2011

Wow. You must be from upstate. I remember when we thought nothing could be worse than Camille, until Katrina came and washed our brick house away. But that's only 42 years of history. More impressive that Jefferson Davis's house was washed away--so there you go, over 1 century of known experience.

[jimboy71]

10:27 AM on 03/30/2011

Oh zing!

[Blackwing]

11:40 PM on 03/25/2011

Has this study been approved by Professor Beck?

[Max Shelby]

11:51 PM on 03/25/2011

He's having difficulty with it. Too many words and not enough stick figure drawings.

[MikeWebster]

01:06 AM on 03/29/2011

Not enough arrows on the blackboard pointing to progressive charitable organisations.

[realpolitic]

12:32 AM on 03/26/2011

Beck thinks the study is anti-science because it was not found in the bible.