Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 16 augusT 2018

Experts: Hail damage is worse, but climate role uncertain

By DAN ELLIOTT Kristen Rasmussen, an as-
Associated Press sistant professor at Colo-
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — rado State University, said
Hailstorms inflict billions of the combined effects of
dollars in damage yearly in climate change will prob-
North America alone, and ably inhibit the number of
the cost will rise as the grow- weaker storms but increase
ing population builds more the number of severe ones.
homes, offices and facto- “So we actually think that’s
ries, climate and weather why we’re seeing a de-
experts said Tuesday. crease in the number of
The role of climate change weak to moderate storms
in hailstorms is harder to as- and an increase in the most
sess, the experts said at a severe storms,” she said.
conference at the Nation- “If those storms are able to
al Center for Atmospheric break through this inhibi-
Research in Boulder, Colo- tion, they ... have the po-
rado. tential to be more severe,
Climate change will like- and they can tap into more
ly make large hailstorms In this Aug. 6, 2018 file photo, Carlton Burton, an employee of the Broadmoor Hotel, shovels leaves energy when they do so.”
worse, but population and hail after a storm that damaged buildings, injured 14 people and killed at least five zoo The researchers said they
growth is more of a certain- animals in the Colorado Springs, Colo., area. Associated Press need more data to un-
ty, said Andreas Prein, a cli- derstand the relationship
mate modeling scientist at Institute for Business and dients, and global warming melting before they hit between climate change
the atmospheric research Home Safety. affects them in different warmer air closer to the and hailstorms. Improved
center. “It’s such a huge driver of ways, Prein said. ground. science could also help
“We know pretty certain the dollar loss each year,” To form, hailstorms require Climate change will likely predict hailstorms and cal-
that we will have more he said. moisture, an updraft, vari- increase updrafts, helping culate risks better, they
people in the future, and Costs are rising in the U.S. able winds and freezing hailstones form, Prein said. said.
they will have more stuff, because homes are get- temperatures at lower lev- But it will inhibit two hail- The Rocky Mountains of
and this stuff can be dam- ting bigger, from about els of the storm cloud, he producing conditions, he Colorado, the Andes in
aged,” Prein said. 1,700 square feet (139 said. said. South America and the
“I think this component is square meters) in the early Updrafts lift water droplets Warmer temperatures will Himalayas all have condi-
more certain than what 1980s to 2,500 square feet into the clouds, where they expand higher into the at- tions that make them hot-
we can say about climate (232 square meters) in 2015, attract other droplets and mosphere, so falling hail- spots for hail, Rasmussen
change at the moment.” he said. New subdivisions freeze together, scientists stones have more time said.
This year is expected to be also pack homes in more say. to melt before hitting the A May 2017 hailstorm in the
the 11th in a row in which tightly, Giammanco said. Winds of varying speed ground. And differences in Denver area caused $2.3
the damage from severe ”So it’s a bigger target for and direction keep the wind speed and direction billion in insurance losses.
storms exceeds $10 billion hailstorms to hit,” he said. droplets suspended in the will subside, he said. Last week, hail injured 14
in the United States, and 70 The effects of climate cloud long enough to grow Climate change will make people in Colorado Springs
percent of that cost comes change on hail and the re- into hailstones. the atmosphere more and killed at least five ani-
from hail, said Ian Giam- sulting damage are harder When they eventually fall, moist, but the effect that mals at the city zoo. Dam-
manco, a research meteo- to calculate because hail- freezing temperatures in will have on hailstones isn’t age estimates were still be-
rologist for the Insurance storms require distinct ingre- the cloud keep them from clear, he said. ing compiled.q

Spacewalkers flinging satellites,

installing bird trackers

By MARCIA DUNN Soon after leaving the In- The first satellite tumbled
AP Aerospace Writer ternational Space Station, away as the space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Sergey Prokopyev released soared 250 miles above Il-
(AP) — Russian cosmonauts all four research satellites linois. By the time the fourth
took a spacewalk Wednes- by hand. one was on its way 14 min-
In this image made from video provided by NASA, cosmonaut day to fling tiny satellites “I’m ready for the launch,” utes later, the station was
Sergey Prokopyev flings a Sirius nano-satellite into orbit from into orbit and install an an- Prokopyev told Russian almost to Spain. Two were
the International Space Station on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018. tenna for tracking birds on flight controllers near Mos- the size of a tissue box, while
Associated Press Earth. cow. the other two were longer.
The space station is an ide-
al perch for the antenna,
compared with a satel-
lite, said project director
Martin Wikelski of the Max
Planck Institute for Ornithol-
ogy in Germany. That’s be-
cause spacewalkers could
fix something if necessary
and the computer is bet-
ter protected from space
radiation, he noted.q