Climate Change Is Leading to a Convergence of Global Climate Distribution

Abstract

Abstract The impact of changes in global temperatures and precipitation on climate distribution remains unclear. Taking the annual global average temperatures and precipitation as the origin, this study determined the climate distribution with the distances of temperature and precipitation from their global averages as the X and Y axes. The results showed that during 1980–2019, the global temperature distribution converged toward the mean (convergence), while the precipitation distribution moved away from the mean (divergence). The combined effects of both led to a convergence in the global climate distribution. During 2025–2100, significant climate convergence is observed under two emission scenarios (SSP245 and SSP585). However, the climate convergence and the area of change in climate type remains insignificant only under SSP126, suggesting that the diversity of the global climate pattern can be maintained under a sustainable emission pathway (SSP126), whereas high emission pathways will lead to greater uniformity in global climate.

Keywords

• global warming
• climate distribution
• convergence
• divergence
• future scenarios