From fires ablaze in Los Angeles to record-breaking snowfall in Kansas City, the weather across the U.S. has been intense for a wide variety of reasons. How have these weather events affected BVN students, along with the rest of the country?
Astronomy and meteorology teacher Erin Morgan said that large amounts of snowfall affect Kansas City negatively due to the lack of proper infrastructure.
“We don’t have the infrastructure to deal with this amount of snow; we saw that with our parking lots out there,” Morgan said. “In a lot of northern states this amount of snow is pretty standard, and they have better ways of plowing and removing snow. Because we don’t have that kind of system set up here, it definitely took much longer to remove the snow to make the streets safe for us to drive.”
Morgan also said that the recent weather events are due to climate change.
“Climate change is oftentimes just described as the Earth getting hotter, but it’s so much more than that,” Morgan said. “It’s not just that the earth is getting warmer, but it also means more instability in our weather patterns. [In California,] the Santa Ana winds are blowing very, very hard and that is something that’s not unusual, but it’s lasted for an extended amount of time, which causes those fires to get worse. You really have to look at the big picture of how the climate is affecting us.”
Morgan shared that she believes Los Angeles is not prepared for the intensity of wildfires it is experiencing.
“The fire department’s funding got cut relatively recently, and that’s a huge deal,” Morgan said. “Insurance companies dropped some people’s fire insurance because it was ultimately going to be too expensive for the insurance company to cover the fires when it happened.”
Morgan also explained how the lack of insurance would negatively impact people.
“A lot of people are struggling with that because they don’t necessarily have coverage for what they’ve lost because we all knew it was going to happen. It was inevitable,” Morgan said.
Senior Cameron Wood said that climate change has led to a greater frequency of natural disasters and more intense weather occurrences.
“The intensity of snowfall is likely due to a warmer atmosphere because there is more moisture in the air, resulting in heavier precipitation when the temperature drops below freezing,” Wood said.
Hurricane Helene, another natural disaster that occurred in September of 2024 has caused a major amount of damage across the Southeastern United States. Florida and Georgia had to declare themselves in states of emergency due to the large amount of damage they expected. North Carolina, Tennessee and southwestern Virginia dealt with flooding and many tornadoes due to Helene.
Wood said that Hurricane Helene is another result of climate change.
“Climate change intensifies hurricanes like Hurricane Helene because the atmosphere is warmer and [there are] higher sea levels,” Wood said. “Rainfall was excessive which led to the mass amounts of flooding in North Carolina.”
Wood also said that North Carolina was not prepared enough for these types of situations.
“Due to the terrain in North Carolina, there are more susceptible to flooding specifically in Asheville, where the town is located in the bottom of a valley,” Wood said. “The flooding caused major damage to roadways and homes, making it difficult for individuals to evacuate. After the aftermath of the flooding, it wiped out electricity and a lot of cell signal.”
