U.S. faces clear, tangible threat from climate change

NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Thanks to a timely heavy snow, the wildfires that started just before the New Year and burned down nearly 1,000 houses in Boulder County of Colorado finally subsided, leaving more than 30,000 people homeless and three missing.

After a year of frequent natural disasters including drought, heat waves, wildfires, floods and deadly tornadoes, the United States is facing an increasingly clear and tangible threat from the impact of climate change.

According to the latest data updated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in October, the United States suffered at least 19 separate weather disasters in the first nine months of 2021, with the costs of each exceeding 1 billion U.S. dollars. Extreme weather also led to the death of more than 500 people, making 2021 the deadliest year of natural disasters since 2011.

It should be noted that the data did not include the tornadoes that swept across six mid-south states in early December, leaving nearly 100 dead and thousands of houses smashed, with part of Kentucky the worst hit; and the year-end Denver-Boulder wildfire. Assessments of losses in the two disastrous events need more time to finish.

The year 2021 was also the seventh consecutive year in which the United States experienced 10 or more billion-dollar disasters. The highest record was set in 2020 when 22 major natural disasters hit the country.

Heat waves across Oregon and Washington states in late June and early July of 2021 caused hundreds of fatalities, while extremely cold weather in the South in February led to the deaths of more than 125 people in Texas, according to NOAA.

Hurricane Ida ripping through south-northeast of the country in late August was the most costly weather disaster in 2021, with at least 65.25 billion dollars in damage and the loss of 95 lives including 18 in New York City.

As of Dec. 31, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) recorded a total of 58,733 wildfires across the country. Though the number is not a historical record, it's higher than the previous three years. What's more important is the wildfire season started earlier and ended later than average.

It's not common to have devastating wildfires deep into the snow season and especially in densely populated neighborhoods like Denver City and Boulder County. Experts have warned that many kinds of weather disasters which were seasonal in the past are now happening all year round, and the pushing hand behind the scenes is undoubtedly climate change.

Becky Bolinger, Colorado assistant state climatologist, tweeted on Colorado wildfires that "It's not just the weather happening today... A very wet spring 2021 helped grow the grasses. A very dry summer and fall dried the grasses out and prepared the kindling."

Climate change was definitely the reason the ground was primed for the wind-whipped fire to take off, and other areas may experience similar extensions of their wildfire seasons, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles, in a report by NBC News.

Analyzing the causes of tornadoes in mid-south states, the NOAA said that warmer winter temperatures attributed to climate change are projected to create conditions that make tornadoes more likely. It also said extreme heat events are now understood to be significantly influenced by the amount of human-driven greenhouse gases. Other types of extreme weather, including heavy precipitation events, storm surge, and wildfires are also being influenced by climate change.

Studies have shown that U.S. average temperature has increased by 1.3 to 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 to 1.1 degrees Celsius) since record keeping began in 1895, and most of this increase has occurred since the 1970s. The most recent decade was the nation's warmest on record.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, average temperatures have risen more quickly since the late 1970s, eight of the top 10 warmest years on record for 48 U.S. states have occurred since 1998, and 2012 and 2016 were the two warmest years on record. Since the late 1970s, the United States has warmed faster than the global rate.