We can’t immediately link Hurricane Sandy itself to climate change, says climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, but the flooding damage we can. Partly due to global warming, sea level has climbed about a foot in the NYC area over the past century, giving storm surges a “step up” along the coast.
The average U.S. citizen consumes around 3.5 pounds of peanut butter a year. Will global warming make climate conditions less peanut-friendly in the U.S.?
For James Overland, an Arctic oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, six exceptionally slushy summers in a row in the Arctic demanded an explanation that went beyond the obvious: that global warming is raising the Arctic’s temperature. After analyzing winds and pressure patterns, Overland and several colleagues documented an unusual shift in the prevailing June winds—from westerlies to southerly—that amplified Arctic warming and sea ice melt.
On the Rio Grande—historically the wellspring for more than five million people in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico—coping with scarcity has become a reality, and water management and use in the region may be a leading example of how to adapt to drier times
As March began, people living the eastern United States were enjoying warmer temperatures, budding flowers, and other signs of the approaching spring season. But on the opposite coast, a series of wintry storms rolled through the already snow-packed Cascades, leaving behind several feet of powder and sparking avalanche warnings throughout the region.
In the wake of historic flooding along the Missouri River in spring and summer 2011, NOAA scientists are exploring how climate patterns like La Niña and others can set the stage for floods or drought in the Northern Rockies and the Upper Great Plains.
In a place routinely afflicted by drought, water managers in Tampa Bay use climate forecasts to ensure a water supply to people’s taps without sucking the region’s rivers, wetlands, and groundwater dry. The limits of their innovation might be tested in a future which could pose even more challenges to ensuring the oasis remains green.
Downpours and Droughts: Timing is Everything
September 10, 2012
Baking the Breadbasket: Persistent Drought in the Heartland
September 10, 2012
Arrival of monsoon eases India drought
September 5, 2012