WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study predicts daily heat records are going to be broken far more often than cold ones in the United States.
Normally, the nation sets about the same number of hot and cold records over several years. But that’s not happening with more than twice as many heat records than cold since 2010.
A study in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts as climate change worsens, that ratio will eventually be around 15 heat records for every cold one.
Study lead author Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said that lopsided ratio could occur as early as 50 years from now if greenhouse gas emissions — from the burning of coal, oil and gas — continue at their recent pace.
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