Climate change: Less cool nights?

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Global warming might be more evident across parts of the United States, however, in Ohio it's not by warmer days but by less cool nights.

A study led by Ohio State University Professor Jeffrey Rogers found average summer nighttime low temperatures in Ohio have risen by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1960s.

Rogers said while that might not sound like much of an increase, it is.

"A lot of Americans might expect global climate change would cause extremely high daytime temperatures in the summer," he said. "But in Ohio at least, the high temperatures haven't been changing -- it's the overnight low temperatures that have been creeping up. That means the average temperature over the 24-hour period is creeping up as well."

That's how Rogers believes climate change will manifest itself in the U.S. Midwest -- by less difference between daytime highs and nighttime lows.

That would mean a big change for Ohio, where a typical summer night is 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the day.

The research by Rogers, Sheng-Hung Wang of the Byrd Polar Research Center and Ball State University Assistant Professor Jill Coleman appears in the Journal of Climate.