Climate Change: Meteorologists Preparing for the Worst

Intense aerial turbulence, ice storms and scorching heatwaves, huge ocean waves--the world's climate experts forecast apocalyptic weather over the coming decades at a conference in Montreal that ended Thursday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) brought together 1,000 specialists to discuss the uncertain future of weather forecasting.

A decade after the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, the world's focus has shifted from reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to warming, to dealing with its consequences.

"It's irreversible and the world's population continues to increase, so we must adapt," said Jennifer Vanos, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas Tech University.

Average temperatures have increased 0.47 percent degrees Celsius so far. Scientists have predicted a two-percent rise in average temperatures by 2050.

A one-degree hike translates into seven percent more water vapor in the atmosphere and because evaporation is the driving force behind air currents, more extreme weather events are expected to follow.

"We'll see clouds forming faster and more easily, and more downpours," leading to flash flooding, said Simon Wang, assistant director of the Utah Climate Center.

For meteorologists, the challenge will be to incorporate this "additional force" into their weather modelling, explained Wang.

To do so, meteorologists will need to use supercomputers to run the increasingly complex algorithms to predict weather.

Climate Change:  Meteorologists Preparing for the Worst