Climate scientists are struggling to explain recent extreme heat waves, which have caught them off guard despite decades of modeling Earth’s future climate. Despite advancements in modeling technology, the predictions made by these models no longer accurately reflect real-world outcomes.
The world is warming at an unprecedented rate, making it essential for city planners, insurance companies, and farmers to know what’s coming next. However, current climate models lack geographic precision and computing power to provide such detailed information. While scientists have improved their understanding of the broad strokes of Earth’s future, local experiences are often at odds with global forecasts.
A recent study by Columbia University researchers found mysterious hot spots on every continent except Antarctica, where temperature records far exceeded model predictions. A new research paper from Dartmouth is set to reveal that daily temperature records across regions where a third of humanity lives are outpacing model predictions. The sudden jump in global temperatures since mid-2023 remains largely unexplained, even though some experts are unsurprised by the discrepancy.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/01/climate-models-earth/681207