cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/9717874

As the climate has warmed, there’s been an increase in the ingredients that make up hail storms: more instability in the atmosphere and stronger updrafts. The altitude in the atmosphere where water freezes has also been rising because of the warmer weather. This means that small hailstones often melt before they hit the ground. The upshot, said Gensini, is the hail that hits will be bigger and storms that produce small stones will be less frequent, thanks to climate change.

Yet even if warming’s effect on hail globally is still emerging, there are clear climate signals in specific places, namely Europe, according to Ian Giammanco, lead research meteorologist and managing director of standards and analytics at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), an industry-funded research group. “The hail across northern Italy, France and that sort of belt is increasing at an anomalously high rate,” he said.

As the climate has warmed, there’s been an increase in the ingredients that make up hail storms: more instability in the atmosphere and stronger updrafts. The altitude in the atmosphere where water freezes has also been rising because of the warmer weather. This means that small hailstones often melt before they hit the ground. The upshot, said Gensini, is the hail that hits will be bigger and storms that produce small stones will be less frequent, thanks to climate change.

Yet even if warming’s effect on hail globally is still emerging, there are clear climate signals in specific places, namely Europe, according to Ian Giammanco, lead research meteorologist and managing director of standards and analytics at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), an industry-funded research group. “The hail across northern Italy, France and that sort of belt is increasing at an anomalously high rate,” he said.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/9716095

Washington Post coverage

Talking Points Memo coverage

Washington Post coverage

Talking Points Memo coverage

Worth noting, though the article doesn't make it explicit: Republicans currently hold a majority in the US house of representatives, and they're the ones trying to get climate provisions out of US law as a condition for passing legislation.

Archived copies of the article: web.archive.org archive.today ghostarchive.org

I'll note that the big spending announcement happened shortly after thousands of mostly HQ and engineering staff at Amazon signed an open letter asking the firm to decarbonize, so it can be seen as a way to buy influence and limit labor action.