The Clouds Are Changing

Eight years ago, I wrote about the uncertainty surrounding how clouds might impact climate change:

Higher temperatures and warmer ocean water will increase evaporation, which should result in more clouds. But clouds have two opposite effects. Because they consist of water vapor—a potent greenhouse gas—high, thin clouds trap the sun’s energy, warming the planet. On the other hand, low thick clouds cool the planet because of their albedo effect—that is, they reflect more of the sun’s energy than they trap. At this time, no one knows which will be the more impactful of the two.

(quoted from Beyond Blind Faith, copyright 2017, 2019, Chapter 11, “Apocalypse Soon,” footnote 19, emphasis added)

Well, now we know.

Global temperatures in 2023 and 2024 were about 1.5º C (2.7º F) warmer than the preindustrial average, primarily as a result of humans generating greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal). Scientists could explain most of that increase, but about 0.2º C (0.4º F) of it was a mystery—until now. The difference is in the clouds.

Climate scientists have discovered that the clouds are changing. We now have fewer low clouds that help cool the planet. Those low clouds are decreasing by about 1.5% per decade in three geographic areas that tend to have the most clouds—near the equator, in the northern hemisphere’s midlatitude zone, and in the southern hemisphere’s midlatitude zone.

Scientists aren’t sure why we are losing clouds, but it’s a bad sign. It means the battle against climate change is becoming even more difficult.

To learn more about what climate change is, how it is impacting our world, and how it might be fulfilling biblical prophecy, read Chapter 11 of my book, Beyond Blind Faith, entitled “Apocalypse Soon.” You can read it in its entirety for free on this website. Just click here, or go to “Don’s Books” at the top of this page and scroll down to the “List of Contents” under my book, Beyond Blind Faith.

This blog entry was based in part on information in the following source:“Scientists have new reason for record heat,” by Shannon Osaka, The Washington Post, as printed in the Dallas Morning News, March 2, 2025, page 15A.