Today, as the Chattanooga area joins a huge chunk of the country bracing against record-setting cold temperatures, many of us are shaking our heads and wondering what’s up with the weird weather.
Some may even be making jokes: So much for global warming.
Don’t be fooled. Global warming – more correctly labeled climate change – is not just about warming. It’s about extremes. Changing extremes, on both ends of our thermometers and rain gauges.
A University of Tennessee at Knoxville researcher in 2012 completed a first-of-its-kind study to predict heat waves for the top 20 cities in the eastern United States. His findings put the Tennessee Valley in the cross hairs of climate craziness with a likelihood of more intense heat waves and drastically wetter weather. For this region he predicted as much as 17 inches of extra annual rainfall.
In 2013, that’s just what we got: our normal 52.5 inches of rain plus another 16.29 inches, to total nearly 69 inches of rain for the year, according to the National Weather Service.