These maps show the observed (left) and model-predicted
(right) air temperature trend from 1970 to 1999. The climate model developed by
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is used here as an example.
More than 50 such simulations were analyzed in the published study.
A new study has found that climate-prediction models are
good at predicting long-term climate patterns on a global scale but lose their
edge when applied to time frames shorter than three decades and on
sub-continental scales.