The next challenge besides surviving the heat is wildfires. The extreme heat is drying out vegetation rapidly and pushing us into an early fire season both on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains and on the western slopes and lowlands of Puget Sound.
While Detroit has experienced flash urban flooding, we, one of the wettest areas of the nation, are having an extended dry spell with heat to back it up.
All of the above is an example of climate change impacts. Dry one place and wet in another. Hot in the summer with cold temperatures and possibly more snow in the winter.
A couple of weeks ago I read an article about an ice shelf in Antarctica that broke off and will be a floating hazard until it melts and adds to the global sea level rise that we are experiencing.
Not to mention the melting permafrost in the Arctic that will add even more carbon emissions to the world’s atmosphere. I expect climate impacts are going to quickly gain speed and the more recent extremes will become more commonplace. Some places in the world will become uninhabitable due to summer heat.
We are seeing “super charger” types of events that are speeding up the impact of the warming climate.
