Climate disasters
like flooding and storms
are on the rise
across the state
resulting in added human
and financial costs.
A new report projects
we'll see more intense storms
into the future and
more rapid shifts between
very wet and
very hot conditions.
I think last week's
severe weather outbreak
is a combination of
random weather variability
i.e., bad luck, in this case
and also climate change.
The climate change fingerprints
are on it because
climate change favors
the warm, humid air masses
that we saw out of season.
We typically don't hit
80 degrees and
have humid weather
in the middle of April.
But if we do
we have the fuel
that generates severe storms.
Your report said something
that stood out, it was
March used to be part of winter
but now it's part of spring.
Yeah, and that's an interesting
new finding that came out of
the State Climatology Office.
The reason we talk about it
that way is that
in the past
starting in most of the
20th century
the majority of time
in Wisconsin
March was below freezing
below 32 degrees.
Recently
in the past decade or so
that's flipped.
Now we spend the majority
of March above freezing.
That has big consequences
in terms of whether
we get rain or snow.
If we get snow
how long it sticks around
and winter lake ice
melts in the spring.