The energy surplus in the atmosphere is intensifying extreme weather events. This is the finding of a new study involving a team from Graz.

The rising concentration of greenhouse gases is causing the planet to warm. However, it's not just the Earth's surface that is getting warmer – the atmosphere itself is too. The increase has been four times as strong since the year 2000 as it was in the four preceding decades, according to a team from the University of Graz led by geophysicist Gottfried Kirchengast, reporting in the specialist journal "Earth System Science Data". In the Northern Hemisphere, outside the tropics, the increase was even around six times as strong. This is driving weather and climate extremes even further. The Graz group took part in a large-scale international study carried out within the framework of the United Nations' "Global Climate Observing System" programme.

Human origin

"Such a strong increase in heat over such a short period of time cannot be explained by natural variability alone," says Gottfried Kirchengast from the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change in Graz and the Institute of Physics at the University of Graz, one of the lead authors of the study.

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Read all about the study here: wegcenter.uni-graz.at