New research predicts sweeping changes to temperature and precipitation rates all over urban North America in the next six decades
Climate scientists are envisioning a future in which the typical Montreal winter warms by nearly 10 degrees Celsius, frosty Quebec City starts feeling like comparatively balmy southern Ontario and snowbound cities across the Prairies get a whole lot wetter throughout the coldest months of the year.
Come 2080, the weather in scores of North American cities could bear closer resemblance to the present-day versions of places that are hundreds of kilometres to the south, including several Canadian centres whose winters are expected to become much milder if emissions keep rising over time.
These projections are among the major takeaways of new environmental research that predicts sweeping changes to temperature and precipitation rates all over urban North America in the next six decades.
Where the study, published in Nature Communications this week, diverges from the wealth of existing scientific literature on climate change is the decision of its authors, Maryland-based ecologist Matt Fitzpatrick and biologist Rob Dunn of North Carolina, to create an interactive map that displays the future forecast for every city they studied, supplementing a dense account of their conclusions with digestible findings that any layman with internet access can understand.
Nick Aris – National Post – Feb 14, 2019.