Science Daily brings us - Lightning expected to increase by 50 percent with global warming.
Atmospheric scientists looked at predictions of precipitation and cloud buoyancy in 11 different climate models and concluded that their combined effect will generate 50 percent more electrical discharges to the ground by the end of the century because of global warming. The main cause is water vapor, which fuels explosive deep convection in the atmosphere. The more convection, the greater the charge separation and the more cloud-to-ground strikes.
Who's got the UPS ready?
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Lightning Expected to Increase by 50 Percent with Global Warming
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @03:03PM
Let's harness it to power our infrastructure.
(Score: 1) by Entropy on Saturday November 15 2014, @05:39PM
Woot, free power! So this global warming stuff auto-corrects itself.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Wednesday November 19 2014, @03:21PM
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday November 15 2014, @03:50PM
I live in San Diego, where we don't get thunderstorms. About 20 years ago we had one, at the time I lived in a condo complex at the top of a hill. Several neighbors and I were standing in the parking lot watching the lighting and commenting on how our hair was rising, and the tingling feeling in our feet, and how cool the lightning was. Something clicked in my head and I pointed out standing on the top the highest hill in the area during a lightning storm, especially with our hair rising and feet tingling, was probably not the smartest thing to do.
/ offtopic, I know
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:09PM
How can the United Parcel Service help us with lightning? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:46PM
They can bring you replacements for the TVs and computers that blew up to protect their surge protectors.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 15 2014, @05:30PM
if Earth sees the expected 4-degree Celsius increase (7 degrees Fahrenheit) in temperature.
A big problem with research in this field is the tendency to use aggressive models to predict a more dramatic outcome. The Earth just isn't on track to see that "expected" 4 C increase by 2100.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday November 16 2014, @02:08AM
Even if we did, I do not think electrical discharge will be the problem, rather I believe the thermodynamics of water going from the vapor phase to the liquid phase - with the accompanying reduction in volume resulting in atmospheric pressure differentials driving huge storm systems - will be the problem.
However, the plus side, we will have a lot more water being distributed over land masses, along with more CO2, resulting in a lot more foliage growth.
The increased ionization in the air will cause more atmospheric nitrate formation, which will only accelerate plant growth.
On the minus side, we will probably have to build sturdier buildings, and not build anywhere near flood plains.
Things have changed. Just because we have become aware of our climate does not mean it will stop changing.
We are intelligent. See where we are headed. Adapt. The dinosaurs didn't. We mammals did.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by dltaylor on Saturday November 15 2014, @06:47PM
Here in SoCal we have "iffy" enough power that a UPS is necessary to handle the sags, brownouts, and outages (I, for example, have a designated "outage group" for when the "oops, we botched the reactor and don't have enough power" shutdowns occur).
Several times per day, I hear the change in tone of the UPS, and the accompanying power gaps are usually enough for noticeable flicker of the various lamps.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday November 15 2014, @09:32PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves