Weather Patterns Confirm Climate Change Reality

All Regions of the U.S. Experience the Effects of Global Warming

Oct 12, 2009 Laurence O'Sullivan

In an interview with the UK’s Daily Telegraph on Sept 28, 2009, titled “Americans are Illiterate About Climate Change”, Prof Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change claims, "In a sense the US is climate illiterate. If you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change even in Brazil, China you have more people who know about the problem and think deep cuts in emissions are needed." Irrespective of the accuracy of this statement, Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate, edited by Karl, Meehl and Millar et al. and published by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program in June, 2008, shows that global warming-induced environmental changes are affecting all regions of the United States and all Americans are being brought face to face with climate change reality.

Changing Levels of Precipitation

The executive summary of Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate claims that for the most part, a warming world will be a wetter world. The document then goes on to highlight the changing precipitation patterns across the United States.

• Overall rainfall over the contiguous U.S. is increasing by at least 6% per century from 1901.

• Increased precipitation is occurring in the Northeast, large parts of the Great Plains and the Midwest.

• Precipitation decreases are occurring in the summer and fall in the Southwest, hence the increase in number and intensity of forest fires.

• Northern areas are experiencing more precipitation as rain rather than snow, leading to a decrease in leisure activities such as skiing.

Drought Conditions and Increasing Temperatures

Notwithstanding the overall increase in precipitation, some areas of the United States are experiencing drought conditions.

• Over the whole of the U.S., six of the last 10 years to 2007, fall in the hottest 10% of all years on record.

• Drought frequency has increased in large parts of the Southeast and Midwest.

• Rising temperatures has led to earlier snow melts in the Western U.S.

• Some of the southern states are now experiencing over 150 days of 90 degrees or over in comparison to only 60 days of such temperature in the early part of the last century.

Rising Sea Levels and Coastal Inundation

Increasing sea temperatures in the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific have increased the environmental stress on the coastlines of the United States.

• Sea surface temperatures have increased by 2°F over the last 30 years.

• Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes have increased in intensity over the last 30 years.

• Although the number of storms in the Eastern Pacific has decreased, the strongest hurricanes have become stronger since 1980.

• Extreme wave heights have increased along the Pacific Northwest coast over the last three decades.

• The Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico have experienced higher sea level rise than the global average.

Earlier Snowmelt and Reduction in Sea Ice

The section on sea ice and snow cover lists the changes occurring in Alaska and the Western mountains.

• The South and lower Midwest of the U.S. has experienced a marked decrease in snow storms over the last two decades.

• Earlier snow melt in the western mountains means a longer dry season with serious effects on plant and animal ecologies and greater threat of more intense fire threats.

• In Alaska the sea ice has decreased dramatically and the Arctic Ocean may become ice free in the summer months in the not too distant future.

• The reduction in sea ice in Alaska has allowed more extreme erosion of the coastline due to stronger wave action.

Whether Americans are more or less climate illiterate than the rest of the world is fast becoming a moot point as the reality of climate change becomes more obvious to all the peoples of the planet. While the complexity of the scientific evidence of climate change has made it difficult for the layman to comprehend, the environmental evidence of climate change, from the disappearing Arctic ice cap to the fate of the Great Barrier Reef has ensured that climate change illiteracy will become a thing of the past.