Future Climate of New Hampshire and the Northeast?
| Six years ago when I moved back to New England I thought to myself (somewhat in jest) that, with global warming, it would not be long before my family would again be able to experience the climate of the state that we were leaving, Tennessee, in our new home state of New Hampshire. According to a new study on Northeast climate impacts just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), there is a good chance that my teenage children will be able to, within their lifetimes, experience a climate in New Hampshire similar to one they experienced growing up in Tennessee. Over thirty independent research collaborators were involved in the UCS study. What caught my eye in the study was a graphic (attached) that indicated that such of an amazing change in the climate of the Granite State could possibly occur as soon as the year 2070. |  |
The study documented existing climate trends in the Northeast as well as predictions for the future. Among the findings: annual temperatures across the Northeast have risen more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Winters have been warming even faster: 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1970. In recent decades across the Northeast: the number of snow-covered days has decreased, as less precipitation has fallen as snow and more as rain; snowmelt is now occurring earlier in the spring; snow density has increased as the snow has become wetter and heavier ( i.e., more “slushy”); the frequency of heavy rainfall events has increased; the number of very hot days has increased; and many species of flowers and trees in the Northeast are currently blooming about four to eight days earlier than the historical average.
The study predicts that in the future, unless the rate of global greenhouse gas emissions is reduced, annual average temperatures in the Northeast could rise as much as 6.5 to 12.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100. The climate of the Granite State will feel even warmer due to increases in humidity: a typical summer day may feel 12 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit warmer late in this century. Currently, northeastern cities experience one or two days per summer over of temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending upon future greenhouse gas emission rates, the number of “above one hundred” degree days in these cities could increase anywhere from three to 28 days by the end of the century. The study tells us to expect between 30-60 more days of “above ninety” temperatures during the same period.
My children, who are already unhappy about last year’s poor skiing conditions in our state, are even going to be less happy to hear that, by the end of the century, the northern part of the Northeast (currently snow-covered for almost the entire winter season) could lose anywhere from up to one-quarter to more than one-half of its snow-covered days. Southern and western parts of the Northeast could experience as few as 5 to 10 snow-covered days in winter, compared with 10 to 45 days historically.
I guess that my kids are just going to have to learn to like longer summers similar to the ones they experienced growing up in Tennessee, since the UCS study predicts that, by the end of the century, summer is expected to arrive in the Northeast as much as three weeks earlier in the spring and stay as much as three weeks later in the fall.
[...] An interesting synopsis of the report is also presented here on Guns, Germs and Steeled. [...]
Links Guns, Germs, & Steeled NH Presidential Watch NH.com It’s Getting Hot in Here NH Nature Notes NH Insider Area 603 Climate Choices Cow Hampshire EcoEarth Climate Ark Seacoast NRG
[...] New Hampshire aquires Tennessee’s current climate by 2070. http://blog.nodvin.net/?p=174 [...]