One often ignored consequence of global climate change is
that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere,
which could significantly alter tropical precipitation patterns, according to a
new study by climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and
the University of Washington, Seattle.
Such a shift could increase or decrease seasonal rainfall in
areas such as the Amazon, sub-Saharan Africa or East Asia, leaving some areas
wetter and some drier than today.
“A key finding is a tendency to shift tropical rainfall
northward, which could mean increases in monsoon weather systems in Asia or
shifts of the wet season from south to north in Africa and South America,” said
UC Berkeley graduate student Andrew R. Friedman, who led the analysis.