Odd December not exactly indicator of climate change

Coast, mountain, desert
area see bigger impact

It’s been a very warm and wet December for Wisconsin.

Some see signs of global-climate change in that. Indications, however, of change are typically more subtle than that in the state, says co-director of the Wisconsin Initiative for Climate Change, David Liebl

“Wisconsin is in an area that doesn’t have as dramatic projected impacts,” Liebl said, “as some of the coastal communities that we have in this country or the desert or mountain areas.”

Typically, farmers will notice the biggest change through longer growing seasons, he says. 

Liebl added the fluctuations of temperatures from year to year in Wisconsin will generally remain the same in the state in a changing climate. On average, he says, things will gradually just get wetter and hotter.