The European Space Agency (ESA) here reports on runoff and river discharge, which are important components in Earth’s water cycle.
With the globe allegedly warming, drought and heatwaves are said to be more frequent and so the hotter climate should lead to reduced water runoff and river discharge. But scientists, using data from satellites, are finding out “this isn’t always the case.”
Runoff occurs when the soil is saturated and has lost its capacity to soak up any more water. The water is then forced to flow over land until it reaches a stream or a river. River discharge describes the volume of water flowing per second at a given point along a river.
ESA says that river discharge is an indicator of climate change and trends on this can be derived from satellite data.
In these days of climate panic, many scientists believe that heat and drought will lead to drier soils and so less runoff into rivers.
The Hydrology Group of the Italian National Research Council has developed an innovative approach using satellite observations of terrestrial water storage, soil moisture, and precipitation to predict runoff and river discharge.
The results were published in the Geoscientific Model Development journal.
The team of scientists led by Stefania Camici of the National Research Council of Italy found that “runoff is also increasing parts of southern Europe, including central Italy, Sardinia, Corsica and the in the Pyrenees.”
Much of northern Europe had been stricken by drought over the 2018-2022 period, and so runoff and river discharge decreased.
But the heavy rains of late 2023 have erased the low runoff situation. Soil saturation and river discharge are high.
The ESA reports on their results:
Dr. Camici commented, ‘These results are somewhat in contrast to climate projections, where runoff is expected to decrease only over southern Europe. While these results need to be further validated and cross-checked, they open up interesting new activities for hydrological research in the near future.’ “
Conclusion: Don’t trust the climate forecasters! They are having a tough time understanding what’s going on, wrongly assuming lots of things in their models, and so end up suggesting absurd policy decisions.
The entire ESA article at phy.org.
Read more at No Tricks Zone
The Models are only as honest as the ones who create them and and many are just looking for Government Grants knowing Biden the Appeaser is all too willing to grant them Cash
One topic not discussed related to higher CO2 levels is how much water plants use. Every time a plant needs to take in CO2 it releases H2O while absorbing the CO2 and with higher concentration of CO2 they lose less water during those intakes. This will reduce the drying of the soil to make up for that respiration. Which would also end up with more runoff due to soil that is not as dry.