(Newser)
– A new study found that summers have gotten longer and hotter over the years, but it also suggests that we haven’t seen anything yet. Research in Geophysical research charts suggests that summer in the northern hemisphere will last six months until the end of the century if climate change continues on its current path, reports the Science Times. Scientists analyzed the data from 1952 to 2011 and calculated that summer grew during that period from 78 to 95 days, according to NBC News. At the same time, winter shrank from 76 to 73 days, spring from 124 to 115 days and autumn from 87 to 82 days. In this trajectory, summers would last about six months until 2100 and winters would last less than two months. For the study, the researchers defined the beginning of summer as the beginning of the warmest 25% of temperatures and the winter as the beginning of the coldest 25%.
“This is the biological clock of all living things,” said author Yuping Guan, of the State Academy of Tropical Oceanography at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “People argue about raising the temperature by 2 or 3 degrees, but global warming changing seasons is something that everyone can understand.” In a press release, the researchers said that these prolonged high temperatures would have far-reaching effects on virtually all aspects of life, in the form of increased heat waves, forest fires, wilted crops, etc. A Kent state scientist not involved in the study tells NBC about another possible side effect: “You could get to a point where insects like malaria mosquitoes, which are normally kept out of high altitude areas because they can’t survive during the night, they could survive longer and at higher altitudes. ” (Read more stories about climate change.)