Fires, Floods, and Freezing: Climate Change in Madison, WI

Introduction

Throughout my life living in Wisconsin, I have gotten used to what seems to be normal weather conditions with incredibly hot summers and ice cold winters. Growing up in the heat of climate change, these things never seemed out of the ordinary and were just apart of life living where I do in Madison, WI. 

To some extent, this is true; living far from the massive reservoirs of high specific heat that is the Atlantic and the Pacific, any winter is automatically colder and summer automatically hotter with little stability. So too, we get the brunt of polar vortexes and summer winds pushing north to make the extremes even worse. Yet, so much of my experience in Wisconsin has been shaped by so much more than just my geographic location. Rather, the massive amount of emissions pushed into the atmosphere over the past couple of centuries has artificially expanded and catalyzed many seemingly natural aspects of life.

Looking farther into this idea of climate change, I find the rate of change is so dramatic, even in my short life so far I have witnessed a distinct change in weather events and extreme patterns. Written below is my account and experience of Climate change in my time living in Madison, Wisconsin.

Wildfires

Perhaps the most pressing climate event happening today is the extreme wildfires in Canada bringing forth gray waves of smog down into the Midwest and East Coast creating overcast days without a cloud in sight. These massive boreal forest fires bring forth massive amounts of 2.5 particulate matter affecting sensitive populations throughout my area and even at high concentrations affecting the breathing and exertional efforts of totally healthy people. For me personally I look into the sky half of the days recently and see a bleak sky that looks like a poor attempt at creating a cloud covered sky. So too, I must assume that those people around me with more sensitive breathing conditions were having some serious trouble breathing if they took a step outside. 

        https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/americas/canada-wildfires-us-smoke-air-quality/index.html

Looking to research resources, I have gained a better understanding of how this seemingly natural event could be rampantly increased in intensity and effects due to artificial carbon emissions. With warmer conditions, the organic matter of the forests is extensively dried and catalyzed for ideal burning meaning they start easier, and are much harder to stop once they get going. All of this will increase and has increased allowing for some bleak ecological outcomes in the daytime sky due to the nonstop emissions warming the forests and drying them out.

Flooding

Another shocking weather event that has happened more than once in my time in Wisconsin is the incredible destructive force of flash flooding due to massive rain fall. As a High schooler, I remember walking down my street with water up to my thighs and seeing cars conk out as they tried to make it through the massive depths. It was a crazy sight to see and I wondered at that time how that much rain could possibly be normal and whether this would happen again. My whole area was pretty much impossible to drive through and me and my mom had to leave our car stranded on some random street after failing to make it through an intersection and pushing it out of the way after the car died. It was a very crazy situation to live through.

https://www.kare11.com/article/weather/crews-search-for-missing-man-after-madison-flooding/89-586130935

Looking at where these kind of events could stem from and how they might change with increasing climate change I found that flash flooding frequency and intensity willl increase with climate change due to the massive amount of evaporation happening as the temperature warms. This kind of increased evaporation leads to very destructive flash floods causing their own host of problems with soil erosion and nutrient runoff into local lakes creating trophic destruction along with the countless damage to human property.

Freezing Temperatures

One thing that is constant in my experience living in Wisconsin and consistently amazes me is the magnitude of cold I experience throughout our winters. Something about Madison brings me memories of getting out of my car and instantly knocked back by ridiculously fast winds and all of the blood rushing out of my face and ears as they begin to numb within seconds. It is a truly unique feeling but one I have grown accustomed to in the months of our Winter season. Snow emergencies and dangerous road conditions remain consistently present in my life and I'm sure cause countless families grief and property damage from hail, snow, and all of the car damage and roof damage that come with it. 

https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2023/02/09/city-of-madison--snow-emergency

This weather issue was one that I never really understood in relation to climate change as my younger self heard global warming and didn't understand how that could cause such ridiculously cold weather. Yet, looking at the cause of our massive cold problems it shows that the polar vortex that rests over the North Pole becomes weakened as the temperature warms, meaning that the ice cold air that flows their will start to slip out more and more and dip into the midwestern regions causing that massive windy, cold, winter that I am so used to on an even greater scale over time as the climate warms. This was very cool to learn about and explains so much as to why climate extremes both directions are getting worse.

My Midwestern Ecology Takeaway

Overall, in this course I have learned so much about my environment and the nature that surrounds me on a local and global scale. My main takeaway I find sticking with me is the idea that humanity has a responsibility as rational and intelligent parts of nature to make up for the damage we cause and furthermore to protect and preserve the ecosystems and biosphere that we live in. This can be justified for practical or philosophical reasons but I have very much internalized the idea that I am responsible for the world around me and that making a difference is possible in terms of protecting what is beautiful and necessary in life. I have also learned the immense beauty of the field of ecology and learned the poetic nature of studying it in the beautiful words of Leopold or Emerson, or Thoreau, something about studying nature requires the mind to be artistic and almost necessitates the use poetic symbolism. 

Sources:

https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-under-air-quality-advisory-due-smoke-canadian-wildfires

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/americas/canada-wildfires-us-smoke-air-quality/index.html

https://www.kare11.com/article/weather/crews-search-for-missing-man-after-madison-flooding/89-586130935 

https://www.nytimes.com/article/flooding-climate-change.html#:~:text=Melting%20glaciers%20and%20ice%20sheets,itself%20expands%20as%20it%20warms.&text=Second%2C%20flash%20flooding%20will%20continue,are%20more%20extreme%20precipitation%20events.

https://www.cityofmadison.com/residents/winter/residents/extremecold.cfm

https://cpo.noaa.gov/Divisions-Programs/Communication-Education-and-Engagement/CEE-News/ArtMID/8293/ArticleID/2369/Research-Links-Extreme-Cold-Weather-in-the-United-States-to-Arctic-Warming