Groundbreaking AccuWeather climate study reveals profound climate trends with far-reaching impacts

0:00From AccuWeather.com, this is AccuWeather Daily, a brief host read article, its weather news, and a nutshell. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Take the stress and prep work out of eating healthy with factors fully prepared meals that are designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs. Factor uses lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food ingredients, and healthy fats. So these meals will not only taste delicious, you'll feel great about eating them. And the variety is incredible. With 100 rotating weekly meals, it will be like you're traveling around the world from the comfort of your kitchen. Just this week, I dove into Factor's queso poblano chicken, the pesto shrimp cabatope, and the pepper fondue shredded chicken, and I loved every delicious bite. I can't wait for what's next! No refined sugars or seed oil, no artificial sweeteners, and each meal is ready in about two minutes. Try Factor and see for yourself, head to Factor Meals.com slash AccuWeather50 off, and use

1:01code AccuWeather50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor, new subscribers only varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. If you happen to be in the market for a new home, it is likely that you are weighing more than just the housing costs and the commute times. Increasingly, folks are also factoring in the risk of extreme weather and climate risk where they plan to live. A new home ownership trends study by Ken Insurance found that 49% of homeowners say climate risk could cause them to move while 93% worry extreme weather could damage their home within the next three years. Now this national poll was conducted back in December among 1000 U.S. homeowners, despite a relatively quiet hurricane season in parts of the southeast last year, the concern still

2:02remains high. The study found 58% of homeowners would avoid moving to Florida due to extreme weather and natural disasters. California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Texas, and Alaska also ranked among the state's homeowners view as having the highest weather-related risks. Weather-driven disasters continue to drive those concerns. Billion dollar weather and climate disasters occurred across multiple states last year, including wildfires and flooding in parts of the west and the south. Home insurance costs are also playing a growing role in where people choose to buy. Homeowners in California, Texas, and Florida said insurance costs weigh very heavily or seriously on their purchasing decisions. In Florida, homeowners have faced limited insurance options in recent years due to frequent hurricanes, rising re-insurance costs, litigation challenges, and insurers pulling back from the market. Now the study authors say the results reflect a broader shift as extreme weather moves

3:05from a secondary concern to a primary consideration for home buyers. Now, AccuWeather just released a new and important study of climate trends for the contiguous U.S. If the climate trends we have identified continue, they are likely to have major impacts on the U.S. economy, our food and water supply, human comfort levels, energy needs, and the health and welfare of citizens over the coming decades. The AccuWeather study found that temperatures have increased an average of a half-degree Fahrenheit per decade over the past 70 years. Two-point temperatures have increased an average of a third of a degree per decade over the same period, though most of this increase occurred before 1995. Relative humidity remained more or less steady until 1995, but then decreased by a significant 5.3% or an average of 1.7% per decade.

4:08Which annual rainfall has declined since 1995 by 2.7% or an average of nearly 1% per decade. Yet the frequency of rainfall amounts greater than 4 inches in a 24-hour period have actually increased by 70%. Likewise, heavy rainfall amounts greater than 2 inches within a 24-hour period have increased by 23%. This comprehensive study is based on a detailed and error-corrected database of 44 official geographically dispersed weather stations and AccuWeather's data suite. Dr. Joel Myers, founder and executive chair of AccuWeather, said if these trends continue, the well-known climate models may not be capturing all of the important changes our studies have revealed. What has been surprising in our detailed analysis is the significant decline of rainfall amounts,

5:08especially since 1995. Over the last 30 years, average rainfall has been declining by an average of 1% every 11 years, and the rain that does fall is less effective for crop production and maintaining our water supply because it tends to come in shorter bursts. Furthermore, the average relative humidity during the same 30-year period has declined by a very significant 5.3%, which is 1.7% per decade. That means that the rain that actually falls is evaporating more quickly and it is less effective in filling up reservoirs, lakes and other water sources. When you combine those factors, the effective average rainfall across the U.S. seems to be declining by 2% to 3% per decade. That's quite significant. If these trends continue, we expect to see accelerating harmful impacts on crop production, more frequent wildfires and less available water due to greater drought.

6:10Furthermore, the crop growing areas in the U.S. may shrink as soil becomes more arid. Even in productive growing areas, crop yields may decline. These effects could become more obvious over the next decade or two. Dr. Myers explained the physical reasoning behind these trends. Warm air can hold more water vapor than cooler air, so as the temperature rises, there is the potential for more water vapor in the atmosphere. When atmospheric mechanisms to transform that water vapor into liquid water are present, such as in thunderstorms, the rainfall amounts in those events tends to be higher. Now, Dr. Myers continued by saying that what is seemingly happening here is the average temperature and dew point increased together up until 1995, and so the average relative humidity more or less remained constant. Since then, the average temperature continued to increase, but the dew point leveled off, and that caused a significant drop in relative humidity.

7:13This suggests that we reached a tipping point around 1995, as the temperature continues to increase, evaporation from the ground and vegetation could not keep up with the increase in temperature, and so the dew point has not been able to increase as quickly as the temperature over the last 30 years, resulting in a decline of relative humidity. If that trend continues, desert areas will expand. To be more specific, the capacity of the atmosphere to hold water vapor approximately doubles for every 20 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature. A common measure of the absolute amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is the dew point, which is the temperature at which saturation occurs when the air is cooled. This means if the temperature and dew point are both 50 degrees, the relative humidity is 100%. If you increase the temperature to 70 degrees, and do not increase the amount of water vapor in the air, the relative humidity falls to 50%.

8:15If you then raise the temperature even further to 90, the relative humidity falls to 25% and so on. So the average temperatures from 1955 to 2024 show a clear warming trend. Now to smooth out year-to-year fluctuations on the annual data sets, acue other created averages over a 10-year period, which shows an increase of 3 degrees Fahrenheit or an average of a half degree per decade. So if these trends continue, there could be serious implications for many industries, including agriculture, those impacted by a decline in water supply, and the increasing frequency of wildfires because the drying will accelerate. There will be less and less moisture in the soil to dampen the rise in temperature because of the heat needed to evaporate moisture from the soil, and this could also mean that the heating will accelerate. Lack of moisture in the soil also decreases the conductivity of heat deeper into the ground, so the heating from the sun is concentrated at the top level of the ground, therefore causing

9:20greater increases in air temperature. That connection between dry soil and extremely hot temperatures has been well known for a long time, but perhaps it's not being fully considered in climate predictions that we've heard. It is important to note climate fluctuations and trends over 10, 20 or 30 years can reverse. There are no assurances that these trends that acue other found will continue or slow down or possibly even reverse. It is also important to realize that these are averages for the nation as a whole, and different regions may have more dramatic changes and other areas much less dramatic changes. To highlight long-term climate signals that can be hidden by year-to-year variability, acue other averaged the data over 10 and 20-year periods. This smoothing method filtered out short-term fluctuations and revealed the underlying climate signals. Additional research and insights will continue to be released focusing on regional impacts

10:20across the U.S., disaster potential, public and business impacts, and other key findings. That's all for now. You can find regional forecasts and more science-based articles at acue other dot com. And for your local forecast, add your fingertips down low the acue weather app. Enjoy the rest of your day. Be safe. I'll be back tomorrow with more from Acue Weather. Rinse knows that greatness takes time, but so does laundry. So rinse will take your laundry and hand-deliver it to your door, expertly cleaned, and you can take the time pursuing your passions. Time one spent sorting and waiting, folding and queuing, now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up the Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or that daunting beef Wellington recipe card and leave the laundry to us. Rinse, it's time to be great.