From a frigid winter to an oppressively hot summer, 2013 has had its share of extreme weather. The widest tornado ever recorded in the United States wreaked havoc on Oklahoma. Wildfires ran rampant in the West, claiming the lives of 19 young firefighters in Ariz. The world as a whole experienced one of the hottest Junes ever recorded.
This infographic from the World Resources Institute plots the most extreme weather events from January until now. WRI created a similar infographic last year, focusing on weather events from January 2012 through September 2012. According to their site, the group focuses on the intersection between environment and socio-economic development, topics that come to the forefront in the aftermath of weather-related disasters.
"All weather events are affected by a warming planet," President Obama said in his climate change speech on June 25th. "The question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late."
Check out the World Resources Institute timeline (Note: This list is not comprehensive, but rather highlights some of the significant events this year.)
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These last 2 years are similar to what the folks who lived through the dust bowl years have told.
Hot, dry, scorching summer heat and fridgid winters with deep snow.
The climate is now caught between 2 extremes, neither able to wrest control of all the seasons.
Which has nothing really to do with Global Warming per se.
It's more like the Irresistable Force meets the Immovable Object.
What hasn't happened yet, that the old-timers talk about, is the crop-destroying insect hordes.
However, now that we are here, how's about shelling out some $$$ for Obama's Magic Climate Elixir?