Vermont climate change indicators

One of the challenges we face in communicating climate change to local communities and states is that the global picture that is often presented can seem remote and far in the future. To overcome this, I have been developing Vermont climate change indicators by analyzing the available local meteorological data, cryosphere and phenology data for the past fifty years from a systems perspective. These data show clearly a coherent pattern of systematic trends in climate and phenology in recent years, as the cold season shrinks in Vermont and the warm season grows longer – trends that are readily understood by local communities that have experienced them. These observation-based trend patterns provide a useful starting point for State climate change adaptation planning for the next few decades. They also raise fascinating and important questions for future analysis of the coupled land-atmosphere system.