Image from boston.com

Climate change has its obvious effects, such as producing natural disasters that can devastate towns and cities, as we witnessed with Superstorm Sandy last fall. This result is undoubtedly one of the “worst case scenarios” of climate change, but what most people do not understand is that it will affect much more than that. We have already seen a spike in the prices of foods we eat day to day, thanks to the drought throughout the summer. The lack of food causes a huge chain reaction, and for some, can result in unemployment. Some of the activities people participate in for fun, to momentarily distract from such issues, will also be affected. One of Alaska’s oldest and greatest sporting events, sled dog racing, has been threatened this winter due to climate change.

The end of 2012 has recently come to an end. Looking back on it, 2012 was a very eventful year, in many different aspects. One topic that everyone was talking about was the end of the world, scheduled to occur 12/21/12, thanks to the end of an ancient Mayan calendar. Although the world did not end, clearly, some events did occur that might have had some individuals believing all the hype about it. The Huffington Post recently came out with an article and an image that covers the major, record-breaking weather events that occurred in 2012. In no particular order, here are the 12 most extreme weather events of 2012:

Photo from environmentalgraffiti.com

Thanks to climate change, the Midwest is continuing to undergo the drought that began as early as last spring. Although most individuals may enjoy the warmer weather and little precipitation, farmers are seriously concerned about weather conditions and what it might mean for their crops. Because of the extremely warm summer and a dry fall, Midwestern farmers were hoping for a rather wet and snowy winter. Clearly, their prayers have not been answered as the Midwest has only seen a few inches of snow thus far this winter. According to weather scientists, the Midwest will need to see an unattainable amount of snow in order to save their crops.

It’s been a month since Superstorm Sandy barreled into the East Coast, destroying homes, businesses, subways, amusement parks, etc. with its 90 mile per hour winds, flooding and, in some areas, heavy snowfall. Millions were left without power for weeks, with some homes receiving their power as recent as last week. East Coasters are still picking up the pieces and trying to figure out what to do next, as officials gain more insight on the disaster.

Millions of Americans were shocked, and are still in shock, at the damage Hurricane Sandy has produced throughout the East. Although the hurricane was considered a category one hurricane, it was still very massive and powerful, and caused a significant amount of damage. Meteorologists are actually in awe at the size of Hurricane Sandy, especially that far up the East Coast during this time of the year. According to one article from the Huffington Post, it stretched over 1,000 miles. With the topic of climate change fresh in our minds over the past few years, many are wondering if the hurricane was a result of climate change.

There have been several predictions made about the type of winter we might experience later this year in the U.S. Some meteorologists predict that with climate change and the record high melting of the Arctic sea ice that we will experience a very extreme winter. However, El Nino is said to begin this Fall which, from past studies, brings warm and mild winters. So, which will it be? A combination of both, maybe?

There are the obvious effects caused by global warming and climate change such as higher temperatures, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, droughts, severe storms, etc. However a lot of these effects cause smaller issues to arise, potentially ruining some of the activities you take for granted in your everyday life. The Huffington Post came out with a list of some of the things that could be ruined by climate change, and here are some of them:

Earlier this month we experienced a “solar storm”, apparently the biggest we have observed in about a decade. A solar storm takes place when an enormous flare of plasma from the sun produces a “solar wind” that slams trillions of ionized particles into the Earth’s magnetic field at super speeds. Although this particular storm was predicted to knock out GPS systems and possibly delay air transportation, it didn’t do much more than give us a pretty view of the Northern Lights in the sky.

As mentioned in a previous post, 2011 was one of the worst years on record regarding natural disasters. According to The Daily Green, these weather disasters racked up a 46 billion dollar damage bill. Here are the five disasters of 2011 that contributed the most:

We all heard about the treacherous twisters that hit the Midwest in the past couple of months or so. I’m sure most of us are all wondering the same thing: why are tornadoes whirling through parts of the U.S. during the winter season?! So far in the month of January this year, there have been 95 reported tornadoes in the U.S., according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. The average number of twisters for the month of January from the years 1991 to 2010 is 35.