NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Global warming may have contributed to low rain levels in Somali in 2011 where tens of thousands died in a famine, research by British climate scientists suggests.
Scientists with Britain's weather service studied weather patterns in East Africa in 2010 and 2011 and found that yearly precipitation known as the short rains failed in late 2010 because of the natural effects of the weather pattern La Nina.
But the lack of the long rains in early 2011 was an effect of "the systematic warming due to influence on greenhouse gas concentrations," said Peter Stott of Britain's Met Office, speaking to The Associated Press in a phone interview.
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