If you want to feel what the climate in Savannah will be like in 60 years, take a trip to northeast Mexico now. A new study finds that the climate in Savannah in 2080 could feel like that of today's Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, if global warming pollution continues at the current pace. For summertime, that means a Savannah with temperatures 6.4 degrees warmer on average than the current swelter.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, tries to explain climate change better.
“The children alive today, like my daughter who is 12, they’re going to see a dramatic transformation of climate. It’s already underway,” said study lead author Matt Fitzpatrick. He’s an ecology professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Sciences in Frostburg, Md., which won’t quite measure up to its name with climate more like current-day southern Kentucky.
Fitzpatrick looked at 12 different variables for 540 U.S. and Canadian cities under two climate-change scenarios to find out what the future might feel like in a way a regular person might understand. He averaged the climate results from 27 different computer models, then found the city that most resembles that futuristic scenario.
He put the results on a website that allows people to check how their nearest city could feel: bit.ly/2Bx0Myi.
The climate in New York City in 60 years could feel like Arkansas now. Chicago could seem like Kansas City, and San Francisco could get a Southern California climate.
In 2080, North Carolina’s capital, Raleigh, could feel more like Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, while the nation’s capital will have a climate more akin to just north of the Mississippi Delta, if the globe stays on its current carbon pollution trend. Miami might as well be southern Mexico and the beautiful mornings in future Des Moines, Iowa, could feel like they are straight out of Oklahoma.
But if the world cuts back on its carbon dioxide emissions, peaking around 2040, then New York’s climate can stay closer to home, feeling more like central Maryland, while Chicago’s climate could be somewhat like that of Dayton, Ohio.
For Savannah, that scenario would mean a future climate more like that of Thonotosassa, Fla., a suburb of Tampa.
The 540 cities on average move 528 miles to the south climate-wise, if carbon emissions keep soaring. If the world cuts back, the cities move on average 319 miles.
The city that moves the most is Wasilla, Alaska, which if emissions aren’t cut back could feel like eastern Wisconsin, 11 degrees warmer in the summer. It’s a change of about 2,720 miles.
Savannah moves about 575 miles south in the current-conditions scenario; the Hostess City gets 277 miles more southerly, climate-wise, if emissions are reduced.
“Visualizations that tap into our own lived experiences make a lot of sense,” said Oregon State University climate scientist Kathie Dello, who wasn’t part of the study and doesn’t like what it shows for her region. “Telling people in historically mild Portland that the climate in the late 21st century will be more like the hot Central Valley of California is jarring.”
Savannah Morning News Reporter Mary Landers contributed to this article.