Weather Report: Wild With a Chance of Record Heat, Precipitation

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

The past year has witnessed an extraordinary number of extreme weather events in New Jersey. It had its wettest August on record, leading to widespread flooding, and a rare October snowstorm, which left hundreds of thousands without power, to name just two.

“Millions of New Jerseyans have lived through extreme weather, causing extremely big problems for New Jersey’s economy and our public safety,’’ said Matt Elliott, clean energy advocate for Environment New Jersey. “Given that global warming will likely fuel even more extreme weather, we need to cut dangerous carbon pollution now.’’

But while there is an overwhelming consensus among climate scientists that man-made activities are causing the planet to warm, there is still a lot of uncertainty whether it is can be tied to climate change, scientists said at a symposium at Rutgers University’s Cook Campus Center yesterday.

If we are seeing more examples of extreme weather, it is likely to be caused by multiple effects, including global climate change, according to Gabriel Vecchi, a research oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Princeton Township.

As the planet warms, there is an expectation that there will be more precipitation, more hot weather, and more record hot weather, Vecchi said. “For single events attributed to global warming, it is problematic,’’ the scientist said at the event, dubbed “Extreme Weather and Climate Change: How Can We Address Uncertainty?’’

For other extreme events, such as hurricanes, the expected influence of global climate change also is uncertain. “It’s a scientific gray zone,’’ he said.

Still, there is evidence of more intense rainfalls occurring, such as the number of days when more than two inches of precipitation falls, noted Richard Moss, a senior staff scientist at the University of Maryland. “But the link to tropical storms just isn’t there yet,’’ he said, during a break in the symposium.

However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in a report issued yesterday, said evidence suggests that climate change has led to change in climate extremes, such as heat waves, record high temperatures, and, in many regions, heavy precipitation in the past half century.

“The main message from the report is that we know enough to make good decisions about managing the risks of climate-related disasters. Sometimes we take advantage of this knowledge, but many times we do not,’’ said Chris Field, co-chair of one of IPCC’s working groups that produced the report.

Continue reading this article at NJ Spotlight.com

Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter