 DISCUSSION: Increasingly warm temperatures throughout the years will eventually cause ice sheets to break off from Earth’s poles, particularly Antarctica. This will lead to a rise in sea level. Although the majority of the world contributes to the effects of global warming, the United States has been the biggest culprit, releasing a quarter of all pollution on the planet since 1850.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have released a report on the extreme sea level rise scenario in the United States. This report has many American coastal cities left almost completely submerged. The floods would affect 172,000 and 222,000 people in Boston, Massachusetts and Virginia Beach, respectively. Miami, Florida will see a total of 296,000 people affected. New York City will have the biggest impacts, as an estimated 832,000 people will be vulnerable to sea level rise. In some regional areas, the start of the ice sheet’s collapse can raise the sea level by 10 to 12 feet by the year 2100. This dramatic increase would mean ocean waters would cover land that is currently home to more than 12 million Americans and nearly $2 trillion in property. More information about this extreme sea level rise can be found here and here! (Pictured above is Mar-a-Lago, an estate and national historic landmark in Palm Beach, Florida.) To learn more about other regional climate stories from around the world, visit the Global Weather and Climate Center! ©2017 Meteorologist Nicholas Quaglieri
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Stunning Climate Projections Using NOAA Climate Explorer (Credit: Meteorologist Jessica Olsen)4/14/2017  Image Courtesy: NOAA U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit Climate Explorer DISCUSSION: Climate research and information on mitigation and adaptation has certainly been a topic for all and is of concern to many. As some residents are beginning to see the effects of changing precipitation patterns, environmental impacts, increased temperature extremes signs of such climate change have become important as people assess what these changes mean to them. Climatology in general is a relatively new science which is aimed at the science of the daily weather over a longer period of time and the study of those influences of climate as a climatologist may study. However as climatology and meteorology remains in its infancy, new tools are emerging yearly to enhance the study of the atmosphere. To aid in some of the understanding about climate change the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has partnered with the Climate Program Office and the National Centers for Environmental Information to create the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, of particular interest the Climate Explorer. The Climate Explorer’s original version was released on November 2014, not gaining much exposure until the new version release in July 2016 garnering significant improvements that can assist communities to assess risks and opportunities for mitigation and/or adaptation to climate based effects. In particular, the Climate Explorer “offers graphs, maps and data of observed and projected temperature, precipitation and related climate variables for every county in the contiguous United States,” according to NOAA. Within the application users are able to search by location, variable and topic. All available to explore maps on observed and modeled data, providing information on lower and higher emissions as well. This is a ultimately a great learning tool for those curious of extreme environmental impacts, while learning about their area. Current limitations are to contiguous United States with expected launch for Hawaii and Alaska in the future. Checkout NOAA's Climate Explorer and input your location, variable or topic. For information on this and other great meteorological and climatological tools visit the Global Weather and Climate Center daily for updates! ©2017 Meteorologist Jessica Olsen "U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit." Climate Explorer-Visualize Climate Data in Maps and Graphs | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2017. |
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