Less fog explains warming Europe, study says

LONDON (Reuters) – Fewer foggy, misty and hazy days help explain why Europe’s temperatures have risen so fast over the past 30 years, a finding that could help predict future climate change, researchers said on Sunday.

Clearer skies due to changing weather patterns and less air pollution have contributed on average to about 5 to 10 percent of the region’s warmer temperatures during this period, said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

“The temperatures in Europe have been going up twice as fast as climate models had predicted in the past decades. Less fog means more sunshine on the ground and hence higher temperatures,” Van Oldenborgh, who worked on the study said in a telephone interview.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of hundreds of scientists, has predicted global temperature increases this century of 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius.

Reuters