PINE RIVER – What are the most visible consequences of climate change?
From more frequent heat and thaw cycles, intermittent drought and flood conditions, and a lack of snow cover affecting winter recreation, the changing climate is affecting our everyday lives.
Minnesota meteorologist and climatologist Dr. Mark Seeley will kick off the one-day "Back to Basics” conference by Happy Dancing Turtle on Saturday, Feb. 17. His talk is called “Climate change in your own backyard.”
Seeley joined John Latimer and Heidi Holtan on the KAXE Morning Show to talk about climate and what he has learned in his nearly 50 years studying the topic of meteorology.
A weird winter
The statistics confirm what Minnesota residents have noticed: The winter of 2023-2024 has seen exceedingly unseasonable weather.
“It’s certainly one for the record books,” said Seeley.
He has looked at the entire state of Minnesota and found that December 2023 was the wettest and warmest December in recorded history.
“It was not even by a small margin,” Seeley continued.
January provided Minnesotans with a little taste of winter with eight or nine days of cooler weather in the middle of the month. Despite this brief return to normal, January ended with another wave of extraordinary warmth.
“January was well above normal in terms of mean monthly temperature. Then we started February with the eight warmest first days of February in state history,” Seeley said.
“I think the dominant driver of what's happening this winter is in fact, climate change. I think it's been amplified by a strong El Niño episode... I've said publicly that my guess is something like 70% climate change and 30% El Niño. And that's discouraging, in the sense that if climate change is affecting us that much, it’s very disturbing in terms of how we’re going to adjust to that.”
Seeley said this winter’s warmth has also brought four or five times more freeze and thaw cycles to the region’s roads and highways.
“That's a big change,” he said. “It's very tough.”
“Part of the problem is exacerbated by people throwing salt out there to combat the ice,” Latimer added.
Hope
Despite the evidence of our changing climate, Seeley has hope.
“I think we're inherently a species that is genetically engineered to take care of each other and to take care of the environment in which we live, and so the stewardship ethic resonates with almost all populations in the state,” Seeley said.
“We have a younger generation of scientists that are literally devoting their careers to this in terms of both adaptation strategies and mitigation energies. If we could ever get all of that capital invested, and we could split it to other nations, I think we really make some very striking progress.
"I'm not about to give up at all... We were given brains for a reason, for crying out loud. And if we start applying that knowledge, we can change things and get this going in the right direction.”
"I'm not about to give up at all... We were given brains for a reason, for crying out loud. And if we start applying that knowledge, we can change things and get this going in the right direction.”
Back to Basics
This year, Happy Dancing Turtle is hosting the Back to Basics conference on Saturday, Feb. 17, from 8-5:00 p.m. at the Pine River-Backus High School. Mark Seeley, the keynote speaker, will provide the opening address at 8:45 a.m.
The Pine River event includes over 40 workshops to choose from, with topics ranging from bark medicine making to a loon-watching introduction. In addition, a large vendor fair will be open to the public. KAXE’s John Latimer and Charlie Mitchell will host a phenology workshop and walk.
“We want to motivate folks to make changes, whether that's in their individual community or family life however they can,.” said Quinn Swanson, Happy Dancing Turtle’s executive director.
Find more information and register.
Climate change in your life
What changes have you seen in your lifetime? Email us.
Listen to the full conversation from the KAXE Morning Show above.
