Here's an article by Charles Fort on how climate change is impacting our world.
Here's how stronger storms, varying water levels and currents, and more weather anomalies are affecting the pastime we love.
We've all seen headlines such as "Last Year Hottest on Record," "Record Low Arctic Sea Ice," "Hurricane Patricia the Strongest Eastern Pacific Storm Ever Recorded."
Here's what's happening.
First, there's a difference between "weather" and "climate." Weather is what's happening today and maybe the rest of the week. Climate refers to weather over long periods of time. While there may be some political disagreement over why changes have been occurring in the climate, nearly all climatologists and meteorologists agree on one fact: The wild weather is occurring because Earth is warming.
Warm air holds more moisture. Scientists at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have accurate records going back to when modern record keeping began in 1880 showing the Earth's average surface temperature increasing by about 1.8 F since the early 20th century. Sounds like nothing. But it makes a major difference in the way our weather operates: About 6 degrees Fahrenheit is all that separates our current climate from an ice age.
As an example of current trends, 16 of the 17 warmest years in recorded history have occurred since 2000, and according to NASA, 2016 was the warmest ever recorded with 2017 coming in a close second. At the rate the climate is warming, NOAA forecasts a 3- to 7-degree increase by the end of this century.
When the planet warms even a degree or two, fundamental weather patterns change in counterintuitive ways, exacerbated by cyclical factors including El Niño and the oscillating jet stream. This creates more severe cold snaps and record snows in some areas. For instance, the spring of 2017 found California's drought-prone Sierra Nevada mountains at 200 percent of normal snowpack. On the other hand, last year Birmingham, Alabama, went a record-breaking 61 days without rain. During June a couple of years ago, temperatures in many parts of California, Arizona, and Nevada surged to record highs.
The Effects, Through Boaters' Eyes
The slow heating of the Earth creates visible changes, such as sea levels rising about 4 millimeters — roughly the thickness of four dimes — every year now. That doesn't sound like much. But residents of Miami can attest to how serious it is.
In the U.S., Miami is at one of the highest risks for rising water. Minor random "nuisance street flooding" (not from storm or tide) is becoming more common.
For boaters, over time, this means swampy areas begin to get covered, and rocks and sandbars that were visible become submerged. Couple that with potentially excessive silting due to runoff caused by heavier-than-normal rains and you begin to see how these changes affect boating.
Plus, sea level rise isn't only from rapidly melting ice caps. Water expands as it warms; about half the rise in sea level is due to thermal expansion of the water. As the Earth warms and more polar ice melts, that rate increases faster.