As climate change threatens locations around the U.S., AccuWeather asks the experts about the best and worst places to live.
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00:00And welcome to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts, I'm Bernie Raynaud.
00:17We go beyond the forecast to give you the how and the why on all of the cool and interesting
00:22stuff you've wondered about and wanted to ask in weather, space and science.
00:28In today's show, we're going across the country to look at how climate trends could impact
00:33decisions that people make on where to live.
00:37Joining me right now is Dr. Andrew Pershing.
00:40He is the vice president for science at Climate Central.
00:43He also leads the organization's climate science activity.
00:47Dr. Pershing, thank you so much for joining us here today.
00:52Hey, Ray.
00:53Hey, Bernie.
00:54It's great to see you.
00:55Thanks for having me on the show.
00:56Well, I must say you've had an interesting career because you started studying not climate
01:03change, but studying lobsters.
01:05Now you study climate.
01:08Tell us what led you to what you do now.
01:11Yeah.
01:12So great question.
01:13I, you know, everybody has their journey in life.
01:16You know, I, I grew up as a kid really wanting to work on the ocean and I, you know, I got
01:20to do that.
01:21But, you know, climate has always been a part of what I've, what I've worked on.
01:24I've always been really interested in how, you know, the physical conditions, the climate
01:28conditions in the atmosphere and the ocean, how that affects ecosystems, how that affects
01:32the animals and plants that are living in the ocean.
01:35And I was, I spent a lot of my career studying the Gulf of Maine, the waters off of New England.
01:40And boy, about in like 2010, 2012, we noticed that they just got, were starting to get really,
01:46really warm, unusually warm, and that that was starting to have these incredibly visible
01:51impacts on the ecosystems, on things like lobsters, on whales, and on the people that,
01:56you know, depend on things like the lobster fishery.
01:59And so that really got me interested in working on climate change and it got me interested
02:02in talking to people about climate change.
02:05And for those that don't know about Climate Central, explain to our viewers the work and
02:11your, and the work that you and your team do.
02:14Sure.
02:15So Climate, Climate Central is a climate science and climate communication organization.
02:20We're based in Princeton, New Jersey.
02:22What we try to do is help folks like Bernie and, you know, folks around the world to touch,
02:28feel, taste, and smell what climate change, excuse me, looks like.
02:33What is it like to live on a planet that's now at, you know, 1.3, 1.5 degrees C?
02:38And so my team does the scientific work that supports that mission.
02:42So we do analysis, we do reports, we do trends, and we try to put that together into ways
02:50that make it easy for journalists, for TV meteorologists to talk about climate change
02:56and integrate that into the stories that we're telling.
02:58And I think one key thing is that we are, you know, we are neutral, we're nonpartisan,
03:02we're not advocacy, we're not here to tell you what to do, but we're here to tell you
03:06what's going on so that people can make smart choices.
03:10You know, recently your work has focused on how climate trends interact with decisions
03:15that people make on where to live.
03:18Some decisions may be due to climate trends and others due to changing weather conditions,
03:24and perhaps some could be a mixture of the two?
03:27Absolutely.
03:29So climate and weather are intertwined, and I think one of the challenges we have right
03:34now is that as climate change is becoming stronger, it's exerting more pressure on the
03:38weather system, that that boundary between climate and weather is getting more and more
03:43blurry.
03:44But people live where they live, in part, and those decisions are based on climate,
03:48right?
03:49The weather that you expect, the kind of conditions that you expect.
03:51And so as the world is warming up, as these climate conditions are changing and they're
03:56affecting the weather, that's going to affect the experience that people have where they
04:00live.
04:01Now, what about if someone loves spending time at the beach?
04:05I love the beach, Hilton Head, South Carolina, my favorite location.
04:10Now, if going to Hilton Head or anybody is going to the beach, where should they be looking
04:15to vacation or move to in the near future?
04:20Well, if you like the beach, I'm going to recommend not moving to my home state of Nebraska
04:24because there's not a lot of ocean front there.
04:27So obviously you've got to go to someplace where there's a beach.
04:29But the things to think about on this sort of coastal environment, a couple of things.
04:35The coast is really interesting.
04:37That's where you have a lot of kind of climate things that come together.
04:40So you have all of the stuff coming from the atmosphere and the weather side.
04:44So increased, stronger storms, especially stronger things like hurricanes.
04:50You're also going to have warming and increased heat risk that can play out for people.
04:55I know a lot of people go to the beach to stay cool.
04:58But on these really hot days, that can be something that's more dangerous and can change
05:04now compared to maybe when people went to the beach when they were a kid.
05:08And then you also have to think about sea level rise, which is this kind of slow pressure
05:13of rising water levels that's really starting to impact some of our shoreside infrastructure
05:19in places like Hilton Head and Miami especially.
05:22Well, you mentioned Miami.
05:24Let's talk about Florida.
05:26What concerns do you have now for places like Florida when it comes to looking at some of
05:31the recent climate trends?
05:34So I think, you know, Florida is a really interesting place.
05:37So they are sort of ground zero for concerns about sea level rise because they are a very
05:41flat state.
05:43They have a large coastline.
05:46And then they have this exposure to strong tropical storms and hurricanes.
05:50So that combined with sea level rise increases that risk.
05:55But it also does sort of strange things like, you know, threatens things like the water
06:00supply and, you know, interacts with their sewage treatment, right, on these days where
06:05they get a lot of, you know, even, you know, sunny day flooding on very high tides.
06:10That actually brings some of the sewage that's in people's septic tanks up, you know, onto
06:16the street.
06:17And, you know, that's not that's not something that I think any of us want to think too much
06:20about.
06:21Obviously, Florida is a very hot, very humid climate, and that is getting hotter and more
06:25humid.
06:27And so that's going to continue to be a challenge.
06:30You know, another challenge and something that is of concern lately is air quality.
06:34It's a big concern for everyone.
06:36Now, currently, where are the best regions of the country for people to go?
06:41Yeah.
06:42So this is a this is a big, big challenge.
06:45You know, usually the U.S. has done a tremendous job cleaning up our air, right, that, you
06:49know, the Clean Air Act and other policies that went into place in the 70s have allowed
06:53us to do things like, you know, clean up cities.
06:55I just remember, you know, Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s was just really gross.
07:00And now, you know, they have, you know, much, much better air quality.
07:03But as the fire seasons have gotten longer, as they've gotten more intense in the West,
07:09now we really have to deal with smoke that can travel across the country.
07:14So it's one of these things where, you know, not where you can't really escape it.
07:19But there are certain places where you're going to get that, you know, you're going
07:21to get those, you know, the impacts of fire and smoke, you know, more often.
07:26And that's usually going to be in the western part of the country.
07:29But you know, we're seeing fires in Texas.
07:31We've seen, you know, fires in the southeast.
07:34You know, they've been a concern in the northeast in the past.
07:36So, you know, it's a it's a it's a growing concern for sure.
07:40And really quickly here, we talked about places where the air quality is not advantageous.
07:46What about areas of the country that where the is being impacted the most by air quality?
07:52Yeah, so, you know, some of the the air quality numbers that have come out of California over
07:58the last few years for people who, you know, in communities that were very close to those
08:01fires that, you know, those are just really shocking, threatening numbers.
08:06But, you know, last year, New York City, because of the fires in Canada and the smoke
08:12coming down from Canada into New York City, New York City had worse had the worst air
08:16quality of any large city in the world, even in, you know, compared to very, very polluted
08:21cities that we think of, like, you know, like Beijing and Delhi in India.
08:25OK.
08:26All right.
08:27With that, it's time to get to our first viewer question.
08:30It comes from Lisa in Michigan.
08:33Lisa writes, what's the difference?
08:35And you hear this a lot.
08:37What's the difference between weather and climate?
08:40Man, this is this is such a fantastic question.
08:42I'm so glad that Lisa asked this.
08:45You know, I think, you know, in the past, it was really easy to draw a bright line and
08:49to say things like, you know, climate is the weather that you expect.
08:53Weather is that, you know, weather is what you get right.
08:56That sort of like, you know, climate is the average of weather.
09:00But because climate change is happening faster and faster all the time, it really starts
09:05to blur those boundaries.
09:07So we actually can see climate change in daily weather.
09:11So we can.
09:12The easiest way to see that is that we are experiencing conditions on, you know, across
09:16the planet that we just could not experience without climate change.
09:21Things like some of the incredibly powerful storms or, you know, hurricanes that come,
09:25you know, very, very quickly or these some of these, you know, extreme temperatures that
09:30we've encountered, you know, in places like, you know, Seattle and Portland, Oregon and
09:35Phoenix.
09:36Right.
09:37That those are conditions that we would not have on a planet that did not have humans
09:41burning fossil fuels.
09:42So so it's a great question.
09:45You know, the short answer is that, you know, is that climate is climate is what you expect
09:49and weather is what you get.
09:51But that line is getting blurry and blurrier every year.
09:54Can you expect that blur to continue as we go forward?
09:58Absolutely.
09:59I think, you know, we we have a lot of confidence in the climate projections.
10:03Unfortunately, it's actually a very easy forecast to make because every year more and more carbon
10:08dioxide goes into the atmosphere.
10:09And we know very clearly that the more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the
10:14planet gets, the more water vapors in the atmosphere, the bigger the storms and those
10:19sort of amplifying risks.
10:20It's a very clear relationship that scientists know very clearly.
10:24OK.
10:25All right.
10:26Coming up later in weather by the numbers, there have been dozens of billion dollar disasters
10:31in the U.S.
10:32We reveal three of the costliest and find out which one actually topped one trillion
10:38dollars.
10:39But next, Dr. Pershing is looking at the year round impacts of climate trends and how this
10:45influences where people move.
10:46We're also answering more of your question when Ask the Experts returns.
11:05And welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts.
11:07I'm Bernie Raynaud.
11:09We're back with Dr. Andrew Pershing.
11:12He's the VP for science at Climate Central.
11:15We're continuing our conversation on places to live and the impact climate change is having
11:21on certain areas of the country.
11:23Now, Dr. Pershing, let's talk about winter weather.
11:27It seems like places like the upper Midwest and the Northeast that in the past have had
11:32particularly harsh winters are no longer experiencing those prolonged snowstorms.
11:38Winters seem to be trending in some of these locations.
11:41Now, is that actually the case?
11:44Or is it just perception?
11:46Well, it is absolutely true.
11:49If you look across the country, across the United States, winter is the fastest warming
11:53season in just about everywhere, pretty much especially everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.
11:59And so we are seeing, you know, fewer, shorter, cold streaks, right, these periods where it's
12:04intensely cold.
12:05Those are getting shorter.
12:07The number of days where it feels like winter, wherever you live in the country, whatever
12:11you would think of as winter, the number of days that feel like winter is getting shorter.
12:17And this year, we're just seeing this play out, especially in the upper Midwest and places
12:20like, you know, North Dakota and Minnesota, where they're just seeing very unusually warm
12:26temperatures, very little snow.
12:27There's almost no ice on the Great Lakes this year.
12:31And that's, you know, that's very much continuing a trend.
12:34Now, let's talk about the other side of things.
12:37Let's talk about extreme heat.
12:39Now, what are the best places to live if you want to avoid extreme temperatures?
12:46So yeah, that's such a great question.
12:48And you know, if so, it would be, you know, the obvious thing is to say, OK, we'll move
12:52someplace north, right?
12:53If you're if you're concerned about the heat, you know, go north.
12:56So maybe move to Maine where I, you know, I spent a lot of time.
12:59But the thing that you have to think about is the, you know, those places, while they're
13:03cooler, the you know, the infrastructure, the lifestyle there is in some ways adapted
13:09to a colder climate.
13:10And so those places are also getting warmer.
13:13So for example, if you're, you know, somebody who's tired of the heat in Florida and you
13:17buy a place in Maine and you move to Maine, make sure you get a place in Maine that has
13:20air conditioning, right?
13:22Because not every place does.
13:24But the number of days that are going to be hot and humid and potentially dangerously
13:28warm is going to increase in, you know, even in places like Maine over time.
13:33All right.
13:34Let's get to our next question.
13:36And it comes from Sean in Florida.
13:39Of course, we've been talking about Florida quite a bit in this episode.
13:42Now, Sean writes, I know some say it's too late to turn things around, but I refuse to
13:48believe that.
13:50What are some things individuals can do to help limit the impact of climate change?
13:56So such a great question.
13:58You know, it absolutely is not too late.
14:00Every tenth of a degree of warming that we can avoid helps people in the United States,
14:05helps people around the world live, you know, live better and safer lives.
14:08So it absolutely is not too late.
14:10The challenge, though, is like as individuals, we don't control that much.
14:14Like our influence on the climate system is actually quite small.
14:18So you know, it's tempting to say, OK, you know, don't fly, you know, buy an electric
14:22vehicle, you know, don't eat meat, all of these things that will reduce your carbon
14:25footprint.
14:26And those those are important things for us to think about.
14:28But I'd say the one most valuable thing to do is just like what we're doing here, Bernie,
14:33today.
14:34And that's talking about it.
14:35Right.
14:36People don't talk about climate change enough.
14:38We don't we don't talk about it with our friends and neighbors, and therefore other people
14:42aren't as concerned about it.
14:43And a lot of the social science research suggests that people actually do want to talk about
14:47it.
14:48They're concerned about it.
14:49They just don't think anybody else is.
14:51They think they're alone.
14:52And so I think the most important thing, the most valuable thing that an individual can
14:56do around climate change is talk about it.
14:59And, you know, one quick other question.
15:02There's a lot of discussion about El Nino and La Nina.
15:05Can you briefly talk about what that adds to the equation when it comes to climate?
15:11So El Nino and La Nina, this is a natural swing in our climate system.
15:15And so when we go into an El Nino year like we are now, it tends to boost global average
15:21temperatures.
15:22So in some ways, it's like turning the air conditioner lower so that you get so that
15:26the planet warms up a little bit more and it disrupts weather patterns around the world.
15:31So some of the extra heat that we're getting this summer or this winter is related to El
15:36Nino.
15:37But that's happening on top of this kind of baseline pressure from climate change.
15:42The other thing that we're thinking about and starting is that there's likely potential
15:46going to be a switch back to La Nina in the summer.
15:50And that would coincide with the hurricane season.
15:53And so you'd have this mix of really warm ocean conditions in places like the Caribbean
15:58with then the reduced wind shear that we get with La Nina.
16:02And so that could potentially lead to a very active and very powerful hurricane season
16:07this year.
16:08And that's certainly something that we're also concerned with here on the AccuWeather
16:13network, that is the switching back from El Nino to La Nina.
16:18So that is something that we're both we're both concerned about.
16:22Now, if viewers would like more information on Climate Central and learn more about some
16:27of the recent climate trends, how can they do that?
16:31So we have our website, ClimateCentral.org.
16:35We have a lot of resources there.
16:36You can do some you can do things like look at, you know, sea level rise projections for
16:42places around the country and around the world.
16:45You can sign up for our Climate Matters, our weekly bulletin that will give you information
16:48on climate trends, especially in the United States.
16:52And then we also have other services like our real time climate service that will connect
16:57you with, you know, weather conditions that have a climate signal.
17:02And we can send out alerts based on that.
17:04All right.
17:05That is great stuff.
17:06It is.
17:07You know, you always want to be informed.
17:08And as you said, Dr. Pershing, ask questions, look at information, and you can come with
17:14informed decisions on by yourself.
17:17All right.
17:18That's going to wrap up our question and answer segment.
17:20I want to thank Dr. Andrew Pershing from Climate Central for joining us.
17:27Now don't forget, when you have a question about weather, space or science, you can write
17:32us or send us a video question at AskTheExperts at AccuWeather.com.
17:38You can also call us at 888-566-6606.
17:45Coming up next, there have been dozens of billion dollar disasters in the United States.
17:50In Weather by the Numbers, we reveal three of the most expensive and find out which one
17:55actually topped $1 trillion.
18:05Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts.
18:08I'm Bernie Rayno.
18:09It's time for WeatherWise and a segment we call Weather by the Numbers.
18:13No matter where you live, weather disasters can happen.
18:17According to NOAA, here are the most devastating weather events by the numbers.
18:23Our first number, 353.
18:26That's the cost in billions of drought events in the United States from 1980 to 2023.
18:32Drought conditions have impacted states across the country from the southeast to midwest
18:37and many central and western states.
18:40Lack of rainfall and extreme heat can also affect so many parts of the economy.
18:46Our next number, 455.
18:49$455 billion is the cost of severe storms.
18:54That includes the cost of damages from high winds and tornadoes that can develop and devastate
19:00homes, businesses, and can wipe out entire communities.
19:04Also counted as severe storm damage is hail that can smash windows, damage vehicles, and
19:09destroy roofs and other property.
19:12Severe storms can strike any state.
19:14Finally, our last number, 1.4.
19:19That's $1.4 trillion.
19:20That's right, trillion.
19:22Hurricanes are by far the deadliest and most costly weather event.
19:26Nearly 7,000 people have died in tropical cyclone events in the U.S. since 1980, and
19:32that $1.4 trillion is more than half of the total cost of U.S. weather disasters during
19:39that time frame.
19:40All right, thank you for joining us on AccuWeather Ask the Experts.
19:44I'm Bernie Reynolds.
19:45Don't forget, when you have a question about weather, space, or science, you can write
19:48us or send us a video question at AskTheExperts at AccuWeather.com.
19:53You can also call us at 888-566-6606.