In the distant past, 2-3 billion years ago, the climate on Earth was colder than in the past 500 million years.
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Scientists believe that solar radiation in those days was 20% lower than the current level. At the time of the birth of the Earth, 4.5 billion years ago, the Sun was 30% dimmer, and in the future, the level of solar radiation will increase by 10% every billion years.
Therefore, it is likely that someday the average temperature of the Earth will reach much higher values.
Today, the temperature on the earth’s surface varies significantly in different parts of our planet. Thus, the coldest place is Vostok Station, which is based in Antarctica: -89.2°C was recorded in July 1983. And the coldest inhabited place is Russian Oymyakon, where the temperature once dropped to record -71°C.
In contrast: in the California Valley of Death, in July 1913, the air warmed up to 57 degrees Celsius. The higher temperature was recorded by meteorological satellites in the mid-2000s on the territory on Iranian desert Dasht-e Lut, 71°C .
Nowadays, neither extremely low nor extremely high temperatures seem to be something unusual. However, they are local in nature, while maintaining the average temperature of the Earth’s surface at about 16 degrees Celsius. But what happens if the average temperature rises about 4 times?
Under such conditions, the rate of evaporation of water from rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans will exceed the rate of its fallout to the surface in the form of precipitation. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, so the result is an enveloping circuit that will raise the temperature even higher. All glaciers will melt, and the seas will boil after reaching 100°C.
But before that, interesting weather phenomena could be observed, for example, Hypercane. They are extreme tropical cyclones that form when the oceans reach 50 degrees Celsius. The wind speed will potentially reach over 950 km/h, and the central pressure will provide the hypercane with a huge lifespan, at least several weeks.
For comparison, the largest and most intense typhoon in history, the Japanese typhoon of 1979 clocked winds up to 300 km/h.
After the hypercane, the water remains hot enough for dozens of days, giving rise to even more dangerous natural phenomena.
Ultimately, an increase in average temperature will lead to significant emission of greenhouse gases, and the Earth will be in many ways similar to its neighboring planet, Venus. Venus also has an atmosphere, but the pressure is 91 times more than of Earth.
Surface temperatures on Venus can reach 460 °C, hotter than noon on Mercury, even though Mercury is much closer to the Sun. Venus literally gets precipitation in the form of battery acid.
