We are currently doing correlation with Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Precipitation data from Landsat (Top of Atmosphere) and CMORPH respectively. However, it seems that for the four cities we are studying, LST and Precipitation only have very weak and/or negative correlations. However, a quick Google search would tell us that precipitation should increase as temperature rises. Why is this the case? Thank you for your insights!
Hi Jeremy,
I think that a temperatures rise, the air can contain more water vapor so that it can also release more water upon cooling. Since the condensation of water releases a lot of energy, warmer air potentially can also generate more violent weather phenomena.
You need to factor in relative humidity AND dew points, along with your temperatures. That is where you can have massive Heat Indexes and zero precip, if your daytime or night time temps. are not right on top of the dew points, just a few degrees C. off can stop the rainfall.
If you are working from India to Morocco, you need to factor in the real wild cards, which are the Dust Clouds that can cancel all rainfall and stop Category 5 cyclones like GONU that you can see at https://www.ecoseeds.com/newGONU.html
Those Dust Cloud also come off the Gobi desert and impact rainfall from China to California, by cancelling out rainfall. Here in California I have had to washed Gobi desert quartz dust off my car several times a year, and that was mixed with China coal ash and colorful synthetic fibers from China's clothing and shoe manufacturing plants.
On the other side of the issue, is the extra moisture from Global Warming being poured by the trillions of tons extra, into atmospheric rivers that are cancelling out the dust clouds and the issue with the dew points, and creating torrential rainfall in areas like Arabia , that had not seen torrential rains for hundreds of years--are now occurring several time a year now, that you can see at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool2.html
If you are doing correlations for individual precipitation events with temperature, you will find a negative correlation which is largely a result of more clouds and reduced solar absorption that results in a cooler surface. However, the rainfall that occurred does not scale with the temperature after the storm but rather the prevailing clear-sky conditions prior to the start of the storm. Clausius-Clapeyron equation tells us that the amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold will increase with temperature and thus it provides a first-order control for why the rainfall will become more extreme with global warming. You can also refer to this study which addresses this issue in greater detail. Article Breakdown in precipitation–temperature scaling over India pr...
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