![]() ![]() “A snowstorm in the Rockies in the winter is very normal,” he said. Now, those seasonal shifts are becoming less meaningful. Winter brought snow spring brought floods and the summer and early fall delivered hurricanes, with hopefully some downtime before the cycle would start again. “It’s becoming a little more commonplace that this map looks like this, and we’ve got a variety of hazards.”ĭisasters in the United States used to follow a fairly predictable pattern, Greenberg said. “The duration, frequency and intensity of the hazards is increasing over time,” Greenberg said. Jeremy Greenberg, director of the operations division in FEMA’s Response Directorate, has noticed the hazard map grow busier. ![]() ![]() But as the planet warms, the atmosphere can hold more water, which makes severe weather more likely. Of course, severe winter storms are nothing new, and no single weather event can automatically be attributed to climate change. That pattern - localized concerns in parts of the country, with much of the map showing no hazards - was much the same during this week five years ago. It was smooth sailing in whole swaths of the country - devoid of problems, at least from an emergency management perspective. During the second week of January a decade ago, for example, FEMA’s hazard maps were simple by comparison: High winds in the upper plains, heavy rain around the Florida panhandle, small pockets of flooding, drought in parts of the West. It's starting to get a little out of hand. Each weekday morning, FEMA releases a map showing weather hazards around the country. (Federal Emergency Management Agency | The New York Times) A simpler time: FEMA's hazards outlook map from Jan. ![]()
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