One day past the Winter Solstice, after 34 hours of rain melted last week's half-foot of snow, the flooding Vermilion River rushes on its winding way to Lake Erie. This seems to be another global warming-type day -- heavy rain, instead of snow at solstice time. Now, I understand that you can't for sure peg any one unusual weather event to global warming. It's the overall increase in number and severity of such events that you can, with certainty, peg to global warming. 300 years ago, before the Industrial Revolution and the keeping of weather records, who can say a very rainy solstice did not occur? And, by the same token, if the Industrial Revolution had never occurred, or if 20 years ago we had begun to steeply ramp down fossil fuel burning, who can say we would not have a flooding river today? But, leaving aside conjecture, the truth is that every day is a global warming day -- because that is the world we live in. And every weather event is a product of our warmer and still-warming planet, as it ruthlessly seeks a new balance.
The Vermilion River rushes and winds on to Lake Erie, 2013-12-22
The Vermilion River over its banks, 2013-12-22
(From The Paragraph.) [Sources & Notes]
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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2013