Historic Heat Wave, Unusual National Storm Raises Climate Change Awareness

A rare "derecho event" storm system that began in the baking Midwest and raced destructively into the East Coast Friday left behind death, property destruction, long-term power losses - - and this conclusion in a Washington Post news story sure to get under the skin of climate change deniers:

This derecho event is likely to go down as not only one of the worst on record in Washington, D.C. but also along its entire path stretching back to northern Indiana.

As the intensity of the heat wave, without reservation, was a key factor in the destructiveness of this derecho event - it raises the question about the possible role of manmade climate warming (from elevated greenhouse concentrations). It’s a complicated, controversial question, but one that scientists will surely grapple with in case studies of this rare, extraordinary event.

I've been posting about these issues since 2008, beginning with information given to Midwestern cities by the Bush-era EPA about the relationship of climate change to storm events and the need for better local planning:

The EPA officials were urging the Midwestern leaders to adapt their planning and spending to more aggressively confront storm water and related services because heavier, intense rains were going to become more frequent.

Part of the message was: forget the notion of the "100-year-storm." They'll come more often than that in the Midwest as the atmosphere warms.

I posted a similar item today on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Purple Wisconsin site.