Future North American temperatures weighed

Ohio State University researchers say they've used statistical analysis to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America. The analysis examines regional climate models, finds the commonalities between them and determines how much weight each individual climate projection should get in a consensus climate estimate, a university release reported Tuesday. "One of the criticisms from climate-change skeptics is that different climate models give different results, so they argue that they don't know what to believe," OSU statistics professor Noel Cressie said. Analysis on two different North American regional climate models produced projections of temperature changes for the years 2041 to 2070, researchers said. "We wanted to develop a way to determine the likelihood of different outcomes, and combine them into a consensus climate projection," Cressie said. The researchers said their statistical analysis projects average land temperatures across North America will rise around 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2070. "We show that there are shared conclusions upon which scientists can agree with some certainty, and we are able to statistically quantify that certainty," Cressie said.