NRDC: Extreme weather map for the U.S.

Extreme Weather Map

2011: Thousands of Weather Records Broken in the US, Costs Climbing – and Climate Change a Factor

Climate change increases the risk of record-breaking extreme weather events that threaten communities across the country. In 2011, there were at least 2,941 monthly weather records broken by extreme events that struck communities in the US. Check out the interactive map below to find out what events hit your area from January to October 2011.

In 2011, record-breaking extreme events occurred in each of the 50 states. The frequency and intensity of some extreme events is likely to worsen with climate change.

Extreme weather events inflict tremendous costs on our health and families.

By limiting carbon pollution, which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for under the Clean Air Act, we can protect our health and prevent the worst effects of climate change and future extreme weather events.

Extreme weather events and climate change

2011 has been a year of unparalleled extremes: 14 disastrous weather events in the US so far this year have resulted in over a billion dollars in property damage – an all-time record breaking number – and their estimated $53 billion price tag doesn’t include health costs. As shown recently, in a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal Health Affairs¹, when health-related costs of extreme events are calculated, the total tally increases substantially and will likely continue to climb due to climate change. 7 of the 2011 extreme events – a record-high number – are the type expected to worsen due to climate change.

Climate scientists are saying that these events may be part of a troubling trend influenced by climate change². This trend has also been identified by the international reinsurance company MunichRe [PDF]; they concluded that from 1980 through 2011, the frequency of extreme events in the U.S. is rising.³ A newly-released analysis by international climate scientists (IPCC)⁴ concluded that climate change will amplify extreme heat, heavy precipitation, and the highest wind speeds of tropical storms.

We need to be prepared. Emergency planning must incorporate risks from climate change. For example, maps describing flooding zones need to account for increased risks caused by extreme rainfall and sea level rise resulting from climate change. While these plans are made at the local level, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must also prioritize addressing and preparing for climate change by providing guidance and resources to state and local governments.

Protect your family from extreme weather:

• Stay informed – subscribe to local emergency alerts and watch for updates. Make sure to have a battery powered radio or other device in the event you lose power.
• Stay connected – check on relatives, friends and neighbors.
• Plan ahead – have an evacuation plan and emergency supplies on hand. See the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), or the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) lists for what you need.

Check out our maps to find out how vulnerable your community may be to the effects of climate change.

Methods for Developing NRDC's "Extreme Weather Map 2011"

Listen to a recording of the telepresser event announcing NRDC's Extreme Weather Mapping Tool, recorded on December 8, 2011

http://www.nrdc.org/health/extremeweather/

AP: A Mongolian cabinet’s photo op in the scorched Gobi Desert. And not one but two fire tornadoes

AP: A Mongolian cabinet’s photo op in the scorched Gobi. And not one but two fire tornadoes

by Charlie Petit, Knight Science Journalism Tracker, August 30th, 2010

Coming easy off a vacation at the beach. I’m still there, but half time, the morning’s all tracking. Oddities and fragments are catching the eye first. Maybe it’s the grit between my toes talking but I have to comment on the AP’s placement of, on its science feed, a piece from its correspondent in Mongolia, Ganbat Namjilsangarav. The reporter describes the 12-member cabinet of that nation’s ministries sitting down in formal ranks of desks set upon the stark gravel of the Gobi. They all wore hats that say “save our planet.” There is, for all that, not much science here. It’s purely a political show. But, one easily infers, Namjilsangarav bounced along in a jeep for 15 hours with the government reps to get to the site. One must salute that. Anything for a story, and to back up a fine picture – redistributed by the AP from the Xinhua news agency. One expects Namjilsangarav did not attend the recent meeting at (if not atop) Mount Everest by officials in Nepal, are on the bottom of a lagoon in the Maldives by that country’s officials, but he mentions them. Good – one should always look in the archives to put today’s news in context. Photos of those three confabs would make a good triptych.

Speaking of threes, and weather and drought and the lurking anxiety over changes in their patterns, fire tornadoes hit the news the last few days. The two biggies, with videos:

• Hawaii: CNN : Amazing Fire Tornado Hawaii! (via KITV) ; This is spectacular – the fire whirl is no mere dustdevil that glows, but has the form of a genuine tornado.
• Brazil: Sky News: Fire Devil Twister Blazes A Trail in Brazil

These things crop up in the news regularly. Each time, it appears from this evidence, they are treated as something rare, and special. One thinks they are not particularly so. Just check the archives.

My third news example is from a few years back, re a fire in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park. Here’s a video sampling at a site called Metacafe with a tune I, being an old fart, do not recognize. But it’s got the apocalypsos drumming and bass line to match the swirling fire’s nervous frenzy.

Messing around with search engines I discover fire tornadoes already have attracted the attention of science museum curators. The clip’s site doesn’t tell me where the demonstration occurred (Germany is my guess), but if you’d like to see one under controlled conditions, it’s here. Artists harness them too: lookie here.

There is no logical, only a visceral, way to connect fire tornadoes and the Mongolian cabinet’s semi-desperate stunt. If you’d prefer a logical, calm discussion of fire tornadoes and their history and some notable, destructive examples, read it at the usually oddball, catch-all Examiner news site. It is by Johnny Kelly:  Rare fire tornadoes captured on video in Brazil and Hawaii over the past week. This is good, useful reporting on what most news outlets took as mere diversion and eye-candy.

Link: http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/2010/08/30/ap-a-mongolian-cabinets-photo-op-in-the-scorched-gobi-and-not-one-but-two-fire-tornadoes/

- Charlie Petit