Tired Of Snow? Give Global Warming a Few Years.....

I saved this article from The Plain Dealer. After two days of snow (good thing I took a photo of my miniature daffodils, I have a feeling they are not bright and sunny anymore) - it seemed like a good time to post it here. I'm going to provide the entire article instead of a link.

Scientists say global warming will bake Midwest
Posted by John Mangels April 03, 2007 17:58PM
Categories: Breaking News

If global warming continues unchecked, within 100 years its impacts will significantly alter the Midwest, with the Great Lakes climate resembling that of today's Sun Belt, a panel of scientists said Tuesday.

While shorter winters and longer growing seasons might sound like improvements, the climate-change consequences on balance will largely be negative, the researchers said.
In In Ohio and the other Midwest states, they likely will include worsening summertime droughts and heat waves, intensifying storms, declining water levels and purity, increasing air pollution, and a greater risk of insect- and rodent-borne diseases.

"We're talking about a climate for the state of Illinois that's maybe more like that of eastern Texas by the end of the century," said atmospheric scientist Don Wuebbles of the University of Illinois School of Earth, Society and Environment. Computer models of climate change project summer conditions in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin by 2095 "more like that in Arkansas."
"People should be very concerned," Wuebbles said.

He and several other climate researchers briefed reporters in anticipation of Friday's release of a major report on the impact of global warming. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to issue a sobering assessment of the long-term region-by-region effects of human-caused warming.

The buildup of heat trapped by greenhouse gases coming from cars and factories already is causing substantial climate change, including melting Arctic ice sheets, rising sea levels and altered weather patterns.
The plight of polar bears on shrinking ice floes at the top of the world may seem like an abstraction to an Illinois farmer or an Ohio surburbanite, but that shouldn't be the case, Wuebbles said. "Because the Midwest's climate is basically the result of interacting Arctic and southern air masses, whatever happens in the Arctic will affect us." If current greenhouse gas levels persist, climate models indicate that, by the end of the 21st century, average winter temperatures in the Midwest will be as much as 12 degrees warmer than at present, and as much as 20 degrees warmer in summer. Nighttime temperatures likely will not fall off as much as they do now.

Snow cover will be erratic, with more wintertime thaws, said Knute Nadelhoffer, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at the University of Michigan. Spring rainfall will more commonly come from heavy storms than from long, gentle "soaker" showers that allow the water to percolate into the soil. Midwest summers probably will be considerably drier.
Those climate changes will have profound health effects, said Dr. Jonathan Patz, an associate professor of environmental studies and population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin.

Peace Out - 3C