Thomas Munro

Local Warming Thomas Munro

Did the winter feel more like fall in your town? Does it seem like there are more weirdly warm than weirdly cool months where you live? Do heat waves seem to be more severe? You may wonder how your experience of the weather in your city relates to the global phenomenon of climate change. "Local warming" makes answers to this question easily accessible for the first time. Unseasonable, odd, even unprecedented weather is part of the lived experience of the vast majority of Americans. Yet the phrase "global warming" is rarely uttered on the nightly weather report. It is this disconnect between the powerful, unsettling lived experience of a changing climate and the bogeyman of "climate change" that inspired this book. "Local Warming" presents and compares in charts, graphs, and an explanatory narrative the local climate changes nearly every American is experiencing. *Analyzes America's 100 largest cities, plus the largest city in each of the 16 states not on that list *Also analyzes the 50 states *Based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration *City-level focus is on the past seven years, some of the most dramatic in climate history *State-level results reflect 123 years of data *Reveals remarkably consistent story of warming, with only one city averaging below normal average temperatures, 2011-2017 *Ranks the cities and states to reveal geographical trends *A compelling read, but also a valuable learning and reference tool for schools and environmental organizations