Temperatures Rising: Sprawling Cities Have the Most Very Hot Days

Do rising temperatures matter?

Relationships between the environment and population dynamics in ecology have a long history of polarized debates usually involving two alternative and opposite explanations that exclude each other. One of the best known examples is found in the early question of what regulates populations and the role of extrinsic vs. intrinsic factors, opposing the importance of the environment (or density-in...

Hurricanes and rising global temperatures.

T heoretical and modeling assessments consistently point toward an increase in hurricane intensity with global warming (1–3). For the North Atlantic, the annual number of the most intense hurricanes has been predicted to increase by more than 50% for each 1-°C increase in surface temperatures (2, 4). However, there is no consensus on whether current hurricanes have responded to the substantial ...

Long-lead predictions of eastern United States hot days from Pacific sea surface temperatures

Seasonal forecast models exhibit only modest skill in predicting extreme summer temperatures across the eastern US. Anomalies in sea surface temperature and monthly-resolution rainfall have, however, been correlated with hot days in the US, and seasonal persistence of these anomalies suggests potential for long-lead predictability. Here we present a clustering analysis of daily maximum summer t...

Sprawling crisis

The human pressure on natural ecosystems and protected areas is steadily increasing. Urban growth is undeniably and irreversibly converting natural habitats as it is constantly expanding with population growth. In this study we analyze the urban expansion of mega city Calcutta over four time-steps (1975, 1990, 2000, 2010) as an example of expansion over time and threat to the surrounding enviro...

Hypernatraemia in the first few days: is the incidence rising?