Erratic, extreme day-to-day weather puts climate change in new
light Posted November 15, 2011; 03:00 p.m. The first climate
study to focus on variations in daily weather conditions has
found that day-to-day weather has grown increasingly erratic and
extreme, with significant fluctuations in sunshine and rainfall
affecting more than a third of the planet. Princeton University
researchers recently reported in the Journal of Climate that
extremely sunny or cloudy days are more common than in the early
1980s, and that swings from thunderstorms to dry days rose
considerably since the late 1990s. These swings could have
consequences for ecosystem stability and the control of pests
and diseases, as well as for industries such as agriculture and
solar-energy production, all of which are vulnerable to
inconsistent and extreme weather, the researchers noted. The
day-to-day variations also could affect what scientists can
expect to see as the Earth's climate changes, according to the
researchers and other scientists fam