It’s Not Just Global Warming. It’s Global Scorching

It’s Not Just Global Warming. It’s Global Scorching.

In some places, 2010 was the hottest year on record. Saudi Arabia – with its enormous swath of desert – was particularly hard hit, while Egypt stewed during a series of blackouts amidst heat that singed skin and pickled brains. The discomfort of those painful summer months may have dissipated as temperatures begin to dip, but prepare yourself: in the next few decades, particularly around the Mediterranean, our skin and brains could shrivel to nothing under heat and drought that our planet may never have experienced before.

Similar to the Richter scale that measures the severity of earthquakes, the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) rates droughts. Negative numbers refer to dry conditions and positive numbers refer to wetter conditions. Though many northern latitudes will get wetter as warm air holds more moisture, dry southern and subtropical areas are likely to become so hot and so dry that the PDSI will no longer be relevant.