In the Northern Hemisphere in 2017 and 2018 brought several destructive hurricanes to the shores of North America, the Caribbean, and throughout the Pacific rim. Such extreme weather events are predicted to get more common and more severe with increasing climate change.
Several participating classes in the ISCFC were or are in the path of these storms and we hope for the best for them, their families and communities.
We would love to hear from students affected directly and indirectly by extreme weather events, and also any students who have been following the news this summer.
What are your thoughts about the connection between climate change and extreme weather events? Has this hurricane season increased your concern about climate change or not? Do you think that US citizens and residents (and others in the region) will take climate change more seriously now?
Extreme Weather >
Extreme Weather
Recently the snowstorms in Texas have made me wonder if the climate was able to change this much in Texas, could the bay-area also have this extreme weather? Extreme weather events like heat waves or storms can be a indicator for more intense human-induced climate change. This is important because extreme weather can be disruptive and sometimes deadly for human life. For example, heavy precipitation has begun to increase in the United States in the form of intense single-day events. From 1910 to 1980 the number of intense single-day events have been steady, but has risen by a lot since then with 9 of the top 10 years for these intense single-day events having occurred since 1990. Climate change affects the number of heavy precipitation events by warmer oceans increasing the amount of its water that is evaporated in the air. This air mixed with evaporated water moves over land or merges with a storm system that allows it to cause heavy precipitation such as large storms or snow storms. The impacts of heavy precipitation like storms can include damaged property, population displacement, disruption of essential services such as transportation, or loss of life by drowning. There are several other types of extreme weather that are connected or can be an indicator of climate change.
Source:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate