extremes

Happy New Year! Wow, 2012 was eventful: President Obama was re-elected for a second term, Felix Baumgartner was the first person to break the sound barrier while skydiving, and Curiosity landed successfully on Mars. But 2012 was also an eventful year for climate.

While recording our November podcast a couple weeks after Hurricane Sandy pummeled the eastern seaboard, Gregg Garfin, assistant professor and extension specialist at the University of Arizona, posed this question; “What is the Southwest’s Hurricane Sandy scenario?” This got me thinking: Do we have a Hurricane Sandy scenario her

Sweltering heat and extreme drought has been wreaking havoc on the U.S. over the past few months, resulting in wilted crops and record wildfires. January to June was the warmest first half of the year on record.

In my last blog I explored the scientific basis of attributing climate extremes to climate change. Can we attribute one extreme event to climate change?

Last year the U.S. experienced a record 14 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters (the previous record of nine was set in 2008) totaling $53 billion dollars in damage (NOAA).