Climate
Great Lakes winter warmth ahead?
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If Michigan’s mitt could cross its fingers, it might do so to help El Nino provide the Great Lakes region with a milder winter. Road agencies faced with depleted salt budgets could use the break.
Climate
Extreme weather influences climate change perception
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A University of Michigan survey finds that people are more likely to believe in global warming after they personally witness extreme weather events.
Wildlife
Ontario study: climate change impacts freshwater fish range
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The northern boundaries of sportfish species have moved further north in the past three decades, although the amount of change varied from species to species, according to the study published in the journal “Diversity and Distributions.”
Recreation
Thanks to harsh winter, golf courses face tee time delays
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Golf courses in Michigan have reopened after a prolonged winter freeze that caused costly damage and set revenue behind for the season.
Climate
Chestnut farmers cope with lower yields
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Michigan’s chestnut growers are facing the same problems other fruit growers confront this year.
The early surge of temperatures in March and the inevitable cold weather in April and May curtailed nut production, just as it did for apples and cherries.
Echo
Climate change may spur northward advance of Great Lakes invaders
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Amid concern and confusion over Asian carp possibly finding their way into the Great Lakes, many experts involved in the controversy agree that other invasive species are likely to show up too.
Non-native wildlife are common in the Great Lakes, with more than 140 species living in them. Sea lampreys were first found in Lake Ontario in the 1830s.
Echo
Climate change study to help cherry growers assess global supply, markets and competitors
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By Steve Davy
Nov. 6, 2009
Despite the global nature of modern industries there has never been a study measuring the impact of climate change across an industry. Until now. The National Science Foundation recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to an international research team to study climate change and the tart cherry industry. The aim of the study is to provide tart cherry farmers with a global perspective on their industry.
Nearshore
Report: Climate change greatest threat to national parks; Indiana Dunes among most at risk
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Click each park to see its threats. View Great Lakes Parks in Peril in a larger map
By Haley Walker and Yang Zhang
Nov. 4, 2009
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is among U.S. national parks most vulnerable to climate change, according to a recent report. The park on the southern end of Lake Michigan faces an increase in flooding, overcrowding and air pollution and a loss of wildlife, plants and fish. Other parks in the Great Lakes region are also at risk of these effects.
Echo
Great Lakes region’s cool summer fails to dispute longterm warming; cold air from Canada to blame
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By Jeff Gillies
JeffGillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 18, 2009
Four Great Lakes states recorded their coolest July this summer in 115 years of record keeping. Two more recorded their second coolest July. What ever happened to global warming? “Nothing,” said Jeff Andresen, Michigan’s state climatologist.
Echo
Foggy future of Great Lakes climate puts pressure on Michigan cherry growers
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By Andrew McGlashen
The Daily Climate
In the glacier-carved hillsides of northwest Michigan where half of America’s tart cherries grow, climate change is already in full bloom. The state is two degrees warmer on average than it was 30 years ago, and it’s generally wetter, said Michigan State University geographer Jeffrey Andresen, the state climatologist. There’s less ice on the Great Lakes, allowing for more evaporation and more lake-effect snow in cherry country. Farther north, Lake Superior has warmed five degrees since 1979. More importantly for growers, cherry blossoms now appear seven to ten days earlier than they did three decades ago, leaving them susceptible to potentially devastating spring frosts.