Chicago Weather Watch

It’s not just the heat

Summers are getting hotter. From Siberia to Seattle, people are dealing with intense heat like never before.

In the Pacific Northwest, hot and dry conditions are causing pavement to buckle and intensifying wildfires. Along the coastline, clams and oysters cooked in their shells.

In New York and California, people are being asked to turn down their air conditioning. In Florida, buildings are collapsing, and Tropical Storm Elsa endangered rescue efforts.

Coastlines are changing, buildings are sinking. The power grid is being tested like never before.

Climate change is happening, and it’s not just the heat. It affects all living things, not just humans, and our built environments.

While New Orleans and Houston are often cited for their summer flooding problems, Chicago is also vulnerable to water.

Yes, the city was built on swampland, and some of the lakefront has been extended by landfill. The rivers served as road ways when Du Sable established a settlement here. Now there is flooding because the spongey wetlands are covered with highways and houses. Here’s a post I wrote last year about it.

Chicago grew beautiful along the Lake. Lake Michigan has been a resource and a refuge of nature. We live with the Lake, and it’s changing, too. Here is a recent article from the New York Times. Please read and think about it.

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Filed under:
architecture, climate change, history, nature, weather