![]() California struggled with its worst fire season ever, following record breaking heat over the summer. And all this happened while the western United States was engulfed in flames. Heavy rainfalls brought record-breaking inland floods to places like Maryland, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Coastal areas experienced record levels of flooding associated with sea-level rise. Many areas of the country experienced record-breaking flooding in 2018. Hurricanes are Just Part of What Makes Weather So Wild At the same time, 6,000 miles to the west, Hurricane Olivia was on course to hit Hawaii as a strong tropical storm, just weeks after Hurricane Lane dropped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of Hawaii Island and Maui. Florence barreled across the Atlantic and hit the Carolinas, bringing catastrophic flooding rains to the already saturated East Coast, causing coal ash ponds and chicken and hog manure lagoons to overflow, sending pollution into Carolina waterways and causing $38 billion to $50 billion in damage. Hurricane Florence, made landfall in August as a weakened Category 1 storm and turned into the country’s second rainiest storm in seven decades. Then August, not to be outdone, said, “Hold my beverage.” As of just July, there had already been six weather and climate disaster events across the United States, with losses exceeding $1 billion each. In fact, the trifecta of tropical terror turned 2017 into the costliest hurricane season in US history. ![]() Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria ravaged parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and most of the US Virgin Islands, leaving many without water or power and racking up huge agricultural losses. The year 2017 was an active year for devastating storms. And the impacts are intensifying, from regular, extreme droughts that result in municipal water shortages, crop losses, power plant shutdowns and intense, record breaking wildfires, to more frequent occurrences of 500-year floods in places that aren’t prepared to handle them. ![]() This impacts weather patterns, changing where and how precipitation falls, intensifying rain events and wreaking havoc on communities around the country. While a certain amount of the swing is part of normal climatic variation, climate change makes the atmosphere warmer so it holds more water vapor. With increasing frequency the country is experiencing wild weather patterns that swing from droughts to flooding, from severe winter storms and freezes to tropical cyclones. ![]() Climate Change and Weather Patterns: Our Warming the Atmosphere It also intensifies rain events and wreaks havoc on communities around the country. This is because a warming atmosphere holds more water vapor, which impacts weather patterns and changes when, where and how precipitation falls. Climate change and weather patterns are changing. ![]()
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