AP: ‘Global warming is juicing home runs in Major League Baseball’ – Project an extra ‘467 hot home runs by the year 2100′ – Study by American Meteorological Society’
By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press: Climate change is making major league sluggers into even hotter hitters, sending an extra 50 or so home runs a year over the fences, a new study found. Hotter, thinner air that allows balls to fly farther contributed a tiny bit to a surge in home runs since 2010, according to a statistical analysis by Dartmouth College scientists published in Friday’s Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. They analyzed 100,000 major league games and more than 200,000 balls put into play in the last few years along with weather conditions, stadiums and other factors. “Global warming is juicing home runs in Major League Baseball,” said study co-author Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth climate scientist. It’s basic physics. ... Both Nathan and the Dartmouth team found a 1% increase in home run likelihood with every degree the air warms (1.8% with each degree Celsius). Total yearly average of warming-aided homers is only 1% of all home runs hit, the Dartmouth researchers calculated. ... The statistical analysis found no significant heat-aided homers at Tampa’s Tropicana Field, the only full-time domed stadium in Major League Baseball. ...
Mankin called what’s happening “a fingerprint of climate change on our recreation.” Callahan said what’s been seen so far is nothing compared to projections of hundreds of extra homers in the future. In the worst-case warming trajectory – which some scientists say the world is no longer on based on recent emissions – there would be about 192 warming-aided homers a year by 2050 and around 467 hot home runs by the year 2100.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2023/04/07/ap-global-warming-is-juicing-home-runs-in-major-league-baseball-project-an-extra-467-hot-home-runs-by-the-year-2100-study-by-american-meteorological-society/
