Answer to Question #157373 in Physics for Yahia Elsheikh

Question

A model for climate change predicts that global temperatures will continue to rise. Soon after the model is presented, a town has a massive snow storm. What does this tell us about the model?

Answer 1

The climate model build to estimate trends rather than events. For example, the climate model can tell us that the global temperatures will continue to rise. But the climate model can't tell us what weather will be on the next day after the presentation (a massive snow storm) - that's the weather forecasting. As a result, we can't say that the model is not valid. We need to test the model to verify if it works properly.