Climate Change Will Boost Plane Turbulence, Suggests Study

sciencehabit writes "Get used to a bumpy ride. The strength and frequency of atmospheric turbulence affecting transatlantic flights will increase by midcentury, a new study suggests. During winter months, 16 of the 21 often-used ways in which scientists measure turbulence suggest that the average intensity of the plane-rattling phenomenon will be between 10% and 40% stronger when CO2 concentrations are double their preindustrial value. Accordingly, the frequency of moderate-or-greater turbulence—intensities at which passengers will experience accelerations of 0.5 g or more, which are strong enough to toss items about the cabin—will rise by between 40% and 170%. As a result of pilots needing to dodge strong turbulence, flight paths will become longer, and fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions will increase—possibly leading to even more turbulence."

Comments

Re:or, like most of the tens of thousands of model

[iggymanz]

that would be the CPC climate predictions for over a decade, even the one to be released is backpedalling on core predictions

Panning out like other past predictions probably

[SuperKendall]

Given how UK is not seeing "winters without snow" as "scientists" were also proclaiming at one point, I am taking the story of an alarming 100% increase in turbulence with more than a bit of salt.

Even if it were the case I'm not sure how bad this really is. In multiple trans-atlantic flights I have yet to feel any turbulence, so even a number as scary as "100% increase" in turbulence does not really seem like that big a deal in context.

Is it "climate change" getting warmer, or colder?

[KirklesWorth]

Wait - is it "climate change" as in "global warming", or "climate change" as in "nuclear winter"? Which meteorologists' turn is it to flip the scare coin?

Re:or, like most of the tens of thousands of model

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are worried about the skeptics, all you have to do is point out all of the predictions made on global warming that have come true already.

Such as "The Arctic will completely melt by September 2009" prediction. Now all we have to do is wait until September 2009 to prove all those skeptics wrong.

Or the "Hockey Stick" graph that predicts a 0.5C temperature increase by 2010, and rapid increases every year after that. That should be easy to check when 2010 comes around.

And don't forget the prediction of ever increasing hurricanes after Katrina. The year after that storm was predicted to be even more destructive than ever. Let's see how many destructive hurricanes occur in the year following Katrina.

I can't imagine that any skeptics will be left after all these predictions come to pass.