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Climate change in spring and winter warms up WNY
Vermette says national warming rate is climbing dramatically
By Katie Anderson
On April 10, 2013
The national problem of climate change is hitting home in Western New York.
Dr. Stephen Vermette, a professor from the geography and planning department, gave a special
lecture April 8, presenting to students and faculty research proving significant climate changes
that have occurred in Buffalo since 1940.
Vermette said that climates in Buffalo and Rochester are keeping pace with the country's
average temperature changes, according to collected data. Since 1940, the Buffalo area has
seen a 1.1 degree rise in temperature. However, Vermette said that since 1975, the national
warming trend has had a more dramatic climb.
"If we put a treadline on Buffalo, it gives us about a two degree fahrenheit increase, so we're
pretty much in line with the U. S. trend with regards to temperatures," he said. "As we get closer
to the present, the trend is steeper."
Vermette also emphasized that the warming temperatures vary by month. According to the
research, Vermette said the winter and spring months have seen the most warming.
"What we've seen from 1940 to 2012 for Buffalo is that there is a tendency for March, April
and May to be warming at a greater rate than the rest of the year, and October is actually
cooling since 1940," he said. "However, more recently from 1975 to 2012, we see that it's our
Decembers and Januarys that are getting warmer from a 3.5 to 4 degree Fahrenheit trend in
temperature increase. So, we've come from the longer term where our springs were getting
warmer, now the focus is more on our winters getting warmer."
The research Vermette used in his presentation he borrowed from two students, Elvis Valerio
and Fred Bloom, who were conducting the research for their senior thesis project.
"Dr. Vermette asked me to use my findings during last semester, when I was gathering all my
information for my literature review," Bloom said. "It's been an exciting journey to actually see
how our very own climate has changed over time."
All of the data collected by Bloom and Valerio was from the National Weather Service sites
at the Buffalo International Airport and the Rochester National Weather Service in downtown
Rochester.
Once the data was collected, Bloom said he created graphs to demonstrate the percent change
from each normal period (30 years) to the next.
"It is important to understand that the temperature differences from year to year are very
common, but when a climate normal is used and increases are occurring, we should be more
aware of it and possibly concerned," Bloom said. "These small jumps in temperature over time
will eventually add up. It may not be in our lifetime, but the trends since the 1940's indicated
quite a large increase over a small period of time."
Bloom said that he limited his research to Buffalo and Rochester because he wanted to know
more in depth how global warming has affected "our neighborhood."
"It's going to have a whole repercussion on the natural world," Vermette said. "We don't know all
of the consequences for our actions."
Britney Nowak contributed to this report.
Katie Anderson can be reached by email at Anderson.record@live.com or on twitter
@katetheskate91.
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