Predicted wind power changes in North America, 2080-2100. Map courtesy of Kristopher Karnauskas and Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Geoscience, copyright 2017.
Alternative energy sources like wind offer a way to lessen a country’s carbon footprint. But global warming trends could soon change the way the wind blows.
As rapid arctic warming shrinks the heat gap between the North Pole and equator, Northern Hemisphere winds could lose some oomph — up to 40 percent over the next century, depending on region.
Microburst near Amarillo, Texas. Image from the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Credit: Jason Boggs.
Phoenix, Arizona, is not known for strong winds, but that all changes when monsoons annually deliver destructive downdrafts like the one that damaged its five-story Burton Barr Central Library. In this piece, and in the interview that follows it, I clear up some of the confusion that still whirls around these blasts.
