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According to a White House fact sheet on how
climate change will affect Rhode Island, we “can expect more … significantly more
days above 90 degrees and flooding from sea level rise and extreme
precipitation events.”
We’re actually seeing
all of this already.
Rhode Island has been
experiencing many more 90 degree days for decades now – about three times as
many. Since 1904, we’ve had an average of 4 days a year where the mercury hits
90, according to Glen Field, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
Since 1980, according to his data, there have been
on average 12 days a year 90 degrees or hotter. This year there have already
been 15 days 90 degrees or hotter and in 2012 there were 12, he said.
Annual precipitation
rates haven’t risen as drastically, but Rhode Island has seen more than five
more inches of rain and snow since 1980 than the state had since 1904.
According to a press
release she “will join Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Representative Jim Langevin,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 Administrator Curt Spalding, and
local residents in Providence for an event hosted by the Rhode Island Public
Health Association to discuss the public health impacts of climate change,
which include higher risks of asthma attacks and heat-related illnesses,
prolonged allergy seasons, and more frequent extreme weather.”
Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously,
he's worked as a reporter for several different news organizations both in
Rhode Island and across the country.