LOL Wider and wilder weather swings, with an overall warming.
Climate Change - JRCC
Climate Change Over Saudi Arabia
Summary
Background
Model Validation
Climate of Saudi Arabia
Future Climate Change Over Saudi Arabia
References
Summary
The climate change over Saudi Arabia at the end of the 21st century is investigated using PRECIS software, a regional climate model system that can be run on a personal computer, developed by the Hadley Center at the UK Met Office to produce high resolution climate scenarios. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produced reports on potential emission scenarios, from which two scenarios (A2 and B2) were adopted for this study.
The study area is divided into six regions and thirty-seven selected locations over Saudi Arabia. Temperature, precipitation, evaporation, wind speed, soil moisture and runoff were investigated. Results indicated that the years 2071 – 2100 under A2 scenario will generally experience warmer temperature, more precipitation, less evaporation, and more runoff than under the B2 scenario compared to the present. A significant result was the increase of mean daily temperature by 3.0 oC to 4.2 oC, and the increase of precipitation by 23% to 41%.
Background
Many scientists believe that global warming and its consequences are highly influenced by human activities and not by natural fluctuations (Hardy, 2003). The reasoning of this belief has to do with the time scale. The recent recognized warming of the Earth is considered abrupt compared to the time scale accompanied with natural climate change episodes. Earth’s natural climate changes gradually over long periods of time (tens of thousands to millions of years), but we have been witnessing an abrupt change over the past 200 years. The industrial revolution depended on fossil fuels as its main source of energy, which caused a steady emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Those anthropogenic gases trapped heat, causing an increase of temperature in the lower atmosphere. Several studies show the sensitivity of water resources to climate change (Rajab and Prudhomme, 2002). The variation in precipitation, temperature, evaporation, the recharge to aquifers, and the general hydrologic cycle are all interactive.