Severe weather in a warming climate

During the past few decades, the Sahara Desert has become even hotter. Satellite observations suggest that this warming has led to a rise in the frequency of extreme storms in the Sahel region of West Africa. One of the most frequently asked questions regarding climate change is how a warming climate will affect weather in the future. Many disastrous weather events in the past few decades, including Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Sandy (2012), have driven scientists to seek a better understanding of the occurrence, frequency and intensity of such events. For example, there has been debate over whether warming will lead to an increase in the number of intense tropical cyclones1,2. A major obstacle in reaching a conclusion from these discussions is that extremely destructive weather events are rare, making it difficult to obtain robust statistics. Taylor et al.3 make progress in this direction. They use 35 years of satellite observations to show that there has been a persistent increase in the frequency of extreme storms called mesoscale convective systems in the Sahel the semi-arid region to the south of the Sahara Desert

During the past few decades, the Sahara Desert has become even hotter. Satellite observations suggest that this warming has led to a rise in the frequency of extreme storms in the Sahel region of West Africa. One of the most frequently asked questions regarding climate change is how a warming climate will affect weather in the future. Many disastrous weather events in the past few decades, including Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Sandy (2012), have driven scientists to seek a better understanding of the occurrence, frequency and intensity of such events. For example, there has been debate over whether warming will lead to an increase in the number of intense tropical cyclones1,2. A major obstacle in reaching a conclusion from these discussions is that extremely destructive weather events are rare, making it difficult to obtain robust statistics. Taylor et al.3 make progress in this direction. They use 35 years of satellite observations to show that there has been a persistent increase in the frequency of extreme storms called mesoscale convective systems in the Sahel the semi-arid region to the south of the Sahara Desert