How pollen is intensifying rain

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Forecasting Senior Director Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the May 9 edition of Climate In The News.

Transcript

00:00We're covering a couple of interesting climate stories today, starting with something that

00:04climate models are currently not taking into account, and then turning towards the impact

00:10of the warming ocean temperatures and the impact on coral reefs.

00:14Brett, our first story from phys.org about biological particles, these are things like

00:19pollen and how they're really important for helping to form clouds that cause heavy rain

00:24events and how these biological particles are not currently taken into account in climate

00:29particles.

00:30Yeah, how does this work?

00:31Well, it's interesting actually.

00:32As the climate warms, we're seeing an increase in pollen, we've talked about this before.

00:38Bacteria likes the atmosphere to be warm and then plants are growing of course with more

00:41CO2 in the atmosphere and so what's happening, all these spores and pollen getting thrown in

00:47the atmosphere and what they do is they act as a surface for water vapor to condense into

00:53clouds and then eventually into precipitation.

00:56And these particles, as you mentioned with a warming atmosphere, there seems to be more

00:59of these particles down in the atmosphere.

01:01They seem to be more prevalent during the day, it sounds like, given what the study found.

01:05Yeah, exactly.

01:06So the more we throw into the atmosphere, the greater potential for rainfall, even heavier

01:10rainfall events.

01:11That's what we're seeing from the study.

01:13Yeah, and this also increases cloud formation, causes the heavy rain events.

01:16We know that heavy rain events are expected to increase due to climate change because of more

01:20water vapor in the atmosphere.

01:21Obviously, modeling from the weather and climate standpoint, how these bacterial particles

01:25are in the atmosphere is an important area of scientific advancement.

01:29Our second story from ABC News about coral bleaching, a significant negative impact to coral

01:36reef spread.

01:37Eighty-four percent of the world's reefs are currently impacted by this widespread bleaching event that's

01:41happening right now.

01:42Yeah, this is the fourth biggest event in history.

01:47It started in 1998, the first event, and now we're at the fourth event, and this is the

01:50largest one, unfortunately.

01:52And so, with the warming of the ocean waters, more heat stress on coral, and when that happens,

01:59we see the algae that is within the coral start to get taken out of the coral.

02:04And when you do that, the coral starts to bleach and turn white.

02:08Yeah, so the bleaching here, does that mean the coral has died, or is that a little different

02:13than the death of the coral?

02:14Yeah, I think a lot of people think that's what, you know, the coral dies once that happens,

02:17but it's not the case.

02:18It weakens the coral a bit, but there is a chance for recovery.

02:20Yeah, so it's important that the ecosystem get less stressed for that recovery to happen.

02:26In this case, 83 countries and territories have been impacted as coral bleaching has impacted

02:30that widespread area across all the world's ocean basin, so certainly a very widespread event.

02:35Yeah, it's not just the warming of the oceans with the coral here.

02:40Salinity changes can affect coral negatively, and certainly disease and storms also have

02:46an impact, but again, the greatest impact certainly is the warming of the oceans.

02:49And those warming ocean temperatures are caused by the atmosphere warming as well.

02:53We've talked a lot about that here before, about the oceans being one of the biggest sinks,

02:57and they take all that warmth from the atmosphere.

02:59Thank you, Brett, for that insight.

03:01For other stories about climate, you can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.

03:12First in區 2,

03:26for each other, we can find the world of our oceans,

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