A new climate change map shows predictions for just how devastated the future climate will be in various places around the world. The map, which is called The Future Urban Climates, allows interested users to explore how their home area’s climate might change going forward.
The data used to create the map comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and it was created by University of Maryland spatial ecologist Matthew Fitzpatrick to showcase the future of climate change up to 2080.
Of course, all of the changes showcased on the climate change map are just predictions based on current trends of extreme storms, fires, floods, droughts, heat waves, and cold snaps—all of which continue to hit us harder each year.
Interesting tool. I saw a climate projection for 2050 a few years ago (wish I could find it again) that suggested that my area in Maine would be similar to the climate of Baltimore / D.C. Metro and began looking for seed distributors in that region. I figure that assisted migration and mixing genetics from our region as it exists now and the region it will approximate will possibly help to provide some semblance of resilience for the forest we manage. This tool, at thirty years later than the other, puts us as resembling western Missouri which shares many climactic features as the region I had initially targeted (a relief, such as it is) but could signal a loss of our coastal effects. I’m unsure how exactly to parse that alongside my understanding of sea level rise and the fact that Maine’s waters are some of the fastest warming in the U.S.