An overuse of road salt in the winter has potentially harmful effects for everything from wildlife to groundwater Too Much Salt: Good for Winter Travel, but with Consequences for Environmental and Human Health
weather
Dealing With Storm Damaged Trees
On May 15, 2018, late in the afternoon, a striking example of one of those “severe weather events” we see quite often these days passed through my neighborhood in Higganum. Severe winds, downpours, lightning and thunder all were part of a wicked and deadly storm that ripped limbs from and uprooted trees, downed powerlines and […]
It is sunny!
And there are 24 solar panels on my house soaking it all up! Yesterday the panels collected 37 kWh and the day before was 37.9 kWh. To give you some perspective, the average household in Connecticut uses 731 kWh a month or about 24.4 kWh a day. Of course this varies by season and so does […]
What are the chances Halloween will be ruined again?
“Dad, is Halloween going to be cancelled again this year because of the weather?” It’s not a pleasant thought for kids dreaming of bags full of candy. Well, we are approaching the end of October, and for those of us who have been in Connecticut for the past few years, it seems appropriate to discuss […]
What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know About Climate Change
With a Shout out to Donald Rumsfeld “There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don’t know. ” […]
Historical Shoreline Change Project Featured on Local News
Recent storms have focused interest on the dynamics of the shoreline. Receiving attention is the question, “What has it done in the past?” In 2010 the USGS released their report on historical shoreline change along the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts from Virginia to Maine. Connecticut, buried in the Sound, was passed by. With funding […]
When it comes to Climate Change— Money Talks
It is generally accepted by climate scientists that New England will experience a trend of increasing intensity and frequency of storms resulting in an increase in flooding and coastal erosion. Recent storms have raised our collective awareness of the damage, both fiscal and physical, that these storms can cause. Consider that Sandy wasn’t even a […]
Do "We" Believe in Climate Change?
Over the last year and a half here in Connecticut, we have certainly seen our fair share of extreme weather events – Irene, the Halloween nor’easter of 2011, Sandy, Winter Storm NEMO (no relation to our NEMO), etc. These events have certainly had a big physical and financial impact on our state, but may have also […]
Gardening in the Aftermath of Storm Sandy
The amount of daylight we have each day is slowly lengthening, and those gardening catalogs are arriving in the mail. Many coastal communities, as well as some further inland, will be assessing more damage from Storm Sandy as salt spray damage to plants becomes evident. As people think about replanting lost or damaged plants, take […]
Impacts of Hurricane Sandy to the Connecticut Shoreline
UConn’s Connecticut Sea Grant Program (CTSG) and CLEAR hosted a discussion of Hurricane Sandy impacts to Connecticut’s beaches and dunes on November 20, 2012. Several municipalities and private beach associations attended and provided insights into local shoreline changes. Many areas along the eastern part of the state experienced shoreline erosion with dunes heavily impacted by […]
Cool websites
Does anyone actually use the word “cool” anymore (it seems at least to have outlived “groovy”)? Anyway, here are two very cool websites that have very little to do with CLEAR, except that they are focused on the natural world. Give ’em a try. National (real-time) Wind Map The Scale of the Universe 2