General Climate Change and Adaptation Resources

Climate Change in Connecticut

As science continues to improve, large scale climatic changes and their resulting impacts are becoming more obvious with calculable devastation. Climate change, previously referred to as “global warming”, is a label for the global changes to typical meteorological patterns with cascading impacts. The name was changed from ‘global warming’ to reflect the broader changes that are happening.

Climate change information can be found at international, national, state, and regional scales. Most of these impacts are estimated using predictive modeling based on the range climate change drivers. The most recent reports include:

• IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report International Fifth Assessment Report
• National Climate Assessment (2014 & 2018)
• CT Impacts of Climate Change (2010)
• CT Climate Change Preparedness Plan (2011)

Climate change impacts to Connecticut include:

• Overall, Connecticut is getting warmer. Average temperatures could rise between 8 to 12 F degrees in summer. Summers in western Connecticut by 2070 will resemble Virginia or Georgia under lower- emissions or higher emissions scenarios, respectively (Frumhoff et al., 2007). Temperatures may increase between 4 and 7.5 degrees F by 2100 with heatwaves increasing in frequency, duration, and intensity according to earlier reports (Adaptation Subcommittee, 2011). It seems likely that the northern sections of Connecticut may experience slightly higher temperature changes than the coastal areas (Kunkel et al., n.d.).
• Winter precipitation will be mostly rain.
• Precipitation will occur in heavier events with extensive flooding possible.
• Summer drought conditions will increase.
• Warmer temperatures will bring earlier breakup of winter ice on lakes and rivers with earlier peak river flows (10 days to two weeks earlier, Frumhoff et al. 2007).
• Streamflow could drop by 10% by end of the century (Frumhoff et al. 2007).
• Sea level may increase by 12 to 23 inches by the end of the century.
• Intense events and sea level rise may increase flood zone and inundation areas.
• From 1958 to 2012, the Northeast has seen a 71% increase in “very heavy” (heaviest 1% of all daily events) precipitation (Walsh et al., 2014). By the end of the century, it may increase by 5 to 10% more; despite the increases and likely heavy downpours, droughts may be more frequent and intense or last longer (Adaptation Subcommittee, 2011).