How can artificial intelligence (AI) help researchers plan and predict future extreme weather events resulting from climate change? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of researchers from Stanford University and Colorado State University investigated a connection between climate change and heat waves across the United States. This comes as summer temperatures have reached record levels and holds the potential to help scientists better understand and predict future events given the increasing threat of climate change across the planet.
“We’ve seen the impacts that extreme weather events can have on human health, infrastructure, and ecosystems,” said Jared Trok, who is a PhD student in Earth System Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and lead author of the study. “To design effective solutions, we need to better understand the extent to which global warming drives changes in these extreme events.”
For the study, the researchers trained a machine learning algorithm using climate model data between 1850 and 2100 with the goal of determining daily maximum temperatures based on variables like local weather and average global temperatures and what these temperatures would be without climate change. For example, the team determined that the 2023 Texas heat wave was 2.12 to 2.56 degrees Fahrenheit warmer due to climate change, along with their model making accurate predictions for other heat wave-prone regions around the world. In the end, the researchers concluded their new model could help predict future heat waves as climate change contributes to extreme weather events like heat waves.
“We’ve shown that machine learning is a powerful and efficient new tool for studying the impact of global warming on historical weather events,” said Trok. “We hope that this study helps promote future research into using AI to improve our understanding of how human emissions influence extreme weather, helping us better prepare for future extreme events.”
How will AI help predict future extreme weather events in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science Advances, EurekAlert!