“A form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its attendant thunder; it is usually accompanied by heavy rain, sometimes snow, hail, or no precipitation at all.” (Rice, 09d) This event is more familiar to us by the term “thunderstorm.” When these thunderstorms occur, panic and joy is spread through out the city where it is carried out; Joy from the rain and panic from the thunder. The problem is, if we keep polluting our environment, these storms shall occur on a daily basis. So you probably are thinking about why that’s bad, after all, we’ll get a lot of rain and that’ll help our environment? But we all know what they say, “Having too much of something is never good for anyone’s health.” This same theory can be applied to thunderstorms, rain and global warming.

 As global warming heats up our Earth, we can expect to see a ton of thunderstorms and frequent violent conditions. This will bring more rain and precipitation onto our earth. “Global warming could bring the USA a dramatic increase in the frequency of weather conditions that feed severe thunderstorms and tornadoes by the end of the 21st century” (Rice, 09d) After technical research, the National Academy of Sciences has come to a conclusion that some places have been predicted to receive 100% increase in the number of days that favor severe thunderstorms. Now you may ask, what is meant by a severe thunderstorm? If wind gusts reach 58 mph or faster, if hail is 0.75 of an inch in diameter or larger, or if the thunderstorm produces a tornado or tornadoes, it is considered to be a severe thunderstorm. The hardest hit places from these conditions will be the south and east U.S.A including conditions in New York and Atlanta being ruthless.   

 Now, after hearing these predictions, the question arises “What is responsible for these terrifying conditions?” The answer to the question is actually quite simple; us humans and global warming. “The fuel for the more intense storms would be the predicted warming of the Earth caused by the burning of fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases.”(Rice, 09d) Scientists have also discovered that as the temperature of the Earth rises, the warm humid air that causes thunderstorms is expected to increase extensively. These temperature increases have been predicted to rise from 3 -7 degrees Fahrenheit above average by 2100. These temperatures shall strengthen and intensify precipitation.

The bottom line is something has to be done sooner or later. As Al Gore has already explained in his video “An Inconvenient Truth”, we could end up watching Manhattan shrink and then be devoured by water in the next century. NASA researchers have also predicted that the climate models they used to research temperature rises were limited. Actual conditions could be worse than depicted.