Extreme Weather Map 2012

http://www.nrdc.org/health/extremeweather/

 In 2012, record-breaking extreme events occurred in each of the 50 states. We saw the hottest March on record in the contiguous US,2 and July was the hottest single month ever recorded3 in those lower 48 states. Spring and summer aren't the whole story: 2012 is very likely to be the warmest year overall ever recorded in the US, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The frequency and intensity of some very costly types of extreme events4 are likely to worsen with climate change, as temperatures continue to rise and affect weather patterns.

Extreme weather events inflict tremendous costs on our health and families.

Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change

2012 has been another year of unparalleled extremes and disastrous weather events, including:

• The worst drought in 50 years across the nation's breadbasket according to NOAA, with over 1,300 US counties across 29 states declared drought disaster areas
• Wildfires burned over 9.2 million acres in the US, and destroyed hundreds of homes. The average size of the fires set an all-time record of 165 acres per fire, exceeding the prior decade's 2001-2010 average of approximately 90 acres/fire.5
• Hurricane Sandy's storm surge height (13.88 feet) broke the all-time record in New York Harbor, and ravaged communities across New Jersey and New York with floodwaters and winds. Besides the 131 deaths that have been already attributed to Sandy in the US and countless injuries, there are health impacts including respiratory illnesses and mental health effects resulting from the stress and trauma of losing homes and being displaced that could be much longer-term.

The cost of Hurricane Sandy reached an estimated $79 billion for federal aid to cover damages, recovery and measures to cope with future storms in New York and New Jersey. However that price tag doesn't include health-related impacts like hospital visits, which would boost the damage tally even higher. In 2011, a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal Health Affairs estimated $14 to 40 billion in health costs resulted from just six extreme events—types of events that climate change is expected to worsen in terms of frequency, intensity, duration, or geographic extent.6

Climate scientists are saying that these events likely represent a climate-induced trend.7 International insurance giant MunichRe recently concluded that from 1980 through 2011, the frequency of weather-related extreme events in North America nearly quintupled, rising more rapidly than anywhere else in the world.8 A recent analysis by the International Panel on Climate Change, the world's most respected scientific body on the subject,9 further concluded that climate change will likely amplify extreme heat, drought, heavy precipitation, and the highest wind speeds of tropical storms.