In general, the entire globe is warming, however, specific areas are responding differently. For example, land is going to warm more than water and more quickly at high altitudes. Some continents will warm at different rates. Overall, if people stopped producing CO2 there would still be another degree of temperature rise over the next 100 years.
In the Northern Hemisphere, there are now 3 million square kilometres that no longer have snow on them in March and April, unlike previous years (measurements beginning in 1920). The massive losses in ice cover on glaciers is expected to accelerate into the 21st Century.
What can we expect?
British Columbia may undergo changes such as earlier spring melt and lower flows for rivers in the summer and through the fall. Temperature increases are expected to be higher in spring and fall, while cooler winter temperatures are predicted. Precipitation could be much higher in the fall and lower in winter than in previous years.On Vancouver Island significant increases in stream-flow are ocurring in spring and fall, with little increase in the summer. Precipitation is different on Vancouver Island than in the rest of B.C., with rain significantly increasing in the winter on a day by day basis.
Coastal areas are particularly important to the ocean because when the hydrology changes in the coastal zone there is higher runoff, which changes the level of freshwater input into the ocean. This impacts the pH of the ocean and the sea level.
