Group
blames warming for Maine
storm severity
Climate change is
bringing more severe weather to the state and New England, says Environment America.
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer December 6, 2007
Severe rain and snowstorms are hitting New England
more often
than they did 60 years ago, and the trend is expected to
continue because of global warming, according to research
released Wednesday by a national advocacy group.
New England has experienced a 61 percent
increase in the
frequency of big storms, the largest increase for any region in
the nation, the report says.
Maine has had
a 43 percent increase in extreme storms. And the
Portland area,
with a 112 percent increase, is among a small
group of metropolitan areas that have seen severe storm
frequencies double since 1948, when widespread data became
available.
Environment America
reported its findings around the country
this week to coincide with a scheduled vote in Congress on
regulating pollution that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere.
The organization's Maine branch, Environment
Maine, released
the report and Maine
highlights Wednesday and said the trend
could continue and worsen without strong action to slow
warming.
"As climate change and global warming happens, the increase in
temperature results in clouds holding more precipitation, so
when it finally does come down, it comes down in downpours
and severe snow events," said Tracy Allen of Environment Maine.
"They're becoming more and more commonplace,
unfortunately."
Along with the storms comes flooding, coastal erosion, water
pollution and other problems, Allen said.
It is impossible to say that any one storm or series of storms is
due to global climate change, a trend that scientists prefer to
measure in hundreds or thousands of years.
But the findings of increased storm severity in much of the
country are consistent with the scientific projections of how the
weather might shift in the Northeast as the earth heats up.
"We expect to see more precipitation overall and more intense
precipitation, but longer drier periods in summertime," said
Thomas Huntington, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's
Maine District Office in Augusta.
"Storm tracks are moving
northward, but also storm intensity is expected to increase."
Huntington said
he had not seen the study released by
Environment Maine and could not comment on it directly.
Cameron Wake of the University of New Hampshire is among the
climate scientists who, using different methods, documented a
similar increase in severe and costly storms in New
England.
"They're not good for our agricultural systems, they're not good
for our ecosystems and they're not good for our infrastructure,"
Wake said. "This is what we expect is going to happen, and it is
what's happening."
Scientific models also project more dry periods between the
severe storms, so that summer droughts may become more
common, and floods as well.
Scientists also have said that Maine's
precipitation will shift from
snow to rain as the climate changes.
The findings that we're getting more big storms isn't news to
Bob Bohlmann, director of the York County Emergency
Management Agency.
His agency faced back-to-back flooding disasters, on Mother's
Day in May 2006 and on Patriot's Day in April 2007.
"They were a 100-year storm and a 500-year storm within 11
months of each other," he said.
The county and state sought federal aid for flooded
neighborhoods, washed-out roads and bridges, and coastal
erosion that took out sea walls, roads and homes.There also
have been a number of 50-year storms, Bohlmann said.
"I'm not sure whether it's just a cycle of bad storms," he said.
"I'm not in the science business, I'm in the response business,
and it's affecting us."
Bohlmann has paid attention to the predictions about global
warming and New England storms.
"It is an interesting phenomenon and it's one that needs to be
watched. From our perspective, we need to have people
prepared," he said.
"Regardless of what's giving it to you, you've got to be ready.
Maybe we need to get more ready," he said.
Environment America
said it used federal precipitation records
from stations around the country, and included only stations
that remained open and stationary throughout the study period.
Because metro areas such as Portland are based
on smaller
sample sizes – Portland
has just one weather station – the data
is less reliable than state and regional figures, which are based
on records from many stations.
The findings were reviewed by two climate scientists.
For each weather station tracked, the study defined severe
storms as those that dropped at least as much precipitation as
the worst average annual storm.
That average storm at the Portland
station was 2.5 inches of
precipitation in 24 hours, and the average ranged between 2
and 3 inches at other stations around the state.
Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at: jrichardson@pressherald.com
Copyright © 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers
