Saturday, December 10, 2011

42 weather records set in Ohio during past year

Mark Fisher in the Dayton Daily News (Ohio): Ohioans endured 42 record-setting weather events just in the past year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group active in climate change and global warming issues.

Ohio’s extreme weather included 34 rainfall records, seven heat-related records, and one snowfall record, the environmental group said. Dayton has experienced its wettest fall in at least a century and is on course to reach the second-highest annual precipitation amount since 1893, according to Jamie Simpson, chief meteorologist for WHIO-TV Storm Center 7.

Nationwide, 2,941 monthly weather records were broken, the NRDC announced Thursday while unveiling an interactive website about extreme weather events (www.nrdc.org/extremeweather).

“From heat waves to floods to fires, 2011 was a year of extreme weather for communities throughout the United States. This alarming, yet illuminating data is indicative of what we can expect as climate change continues,” said Kim Knowlton, the NRDC senior scientist who spearheaded the development of the web-based tool. “Actions can be taken today to limit the worst effects of climate change. Our leaders need to make climate change preparedness a priority, if these events will be occurring more frequently and with more intensity.”...

An 1846 map of Ohio


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