How can global warming of less than 1 degree Celsius drive extreme weather? You might need to look beneath the surface (of the ocean) for the answer.

This video was illustrated and animated by Jesse Agar. Check out his channel @ThisPlaceChannel

LEARN MORE

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

• Extreme weather: Conditions and events that occur with low frequency, but which often have significant impact on people and nature; e.g., heat waves, droughts, heavy downpours, floods, blizzards, windstorms, hurricanes
• Ocean heat content: the energy stored as heat in the ocean
• Evapotranspiration: the movement of water vapor from land, water, plant, or animal surface into the atmosphere, driven by the drying power of the air

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CREDITS

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Peter Reich | Script Writer Emily Elert | Script Editor Henry Reich | Narrator Jesse Agar | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info

OUR STAFF

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Emily Elert • Alex Reich • Henry Reich Peter Reich • Ever Salazar • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES

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Church, J. A., N. J. White, L. F. Konikow, C. M. Domingues, J. G. Cogley, E. Rignot, J. M. Gregory, M. R. van den Broeke, A. J. Monaghan, and I. Velicogna (2011), Revisiting the Earth's sea-level and energy budgets from 1961 to 2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L18601, doi:10.1029/2011GL048794.

Diffenbaugh, N. S., Swain D. L. & Touma, D. Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California. PNAS, doi 10.1073/pnas.1422385112 (2015). Published online.

EPA. Climate Change Indicators in the United States: Sea Surface Temperature www.epa.gov/climatechange/indicators - Updated May 2014

Gouretski, V., J. Kennedy, T. Boyer, and A. Köhl (2012), Consistent near-surface ocean warming since 1900 in two largely independent observing networks, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L19606, doi:10.1029/2012GL052975.

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): Climate change 2013: The Physical science basis. Fifth Assessment report of the IPCC [Stocker, T. F. et al. eds)]. Cambridge Univ. Press. 1535 pp. (2013).

NOAA (NCEI). Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content. https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/

Trenberth, K. E. Framing the way to relate climate extremes to climate change. Climatic Change, 115, 283-290, doi: 10.1007/s10584-012-0441-5 (2012).

Trenberth, K. E., Dai, A., van der Schrier, G., Jones, P. D., Barichivich, J., Briffa, K. R. & Sheffield, J. Global warming and changes in drought. Nature Climate Change, 4, 17-22, doi:10.1038/NCLIMATE2067 (2014).

Trenberth, K. E., JTFasullo, TG Shepherd. Attribution of climate extreme events. Nature Climate Change (in review).

Trenberth, K.E. (personal communication).

U.S. Global Change Research Program. 2014 National Climate Assessment. http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/report-findings/extreme-weather