Wake-up Map

National Weather Service warnings by county
July 3, 2013
Click map to enlarge

Part of my morning routine is to check the local weather, going to the original source at weather.gov, rather than a commercial site, most of which add unnecessary visual packaging and no advertisements.

Before I could even notice the local forecast on the left-hand side of the screen (hot, muggy, chance of storms), the national map really caught my eye.

The symmetry would be pleasing, were the threats on the ground not so dire. Just as the southwest is dangerously hot and dry, the southeast is dangerously wet. The purple shading indicated only "excessive" heat. Tucson is not included, as it will only reach 105 degrees today. In between, the tan areas appear relatively calm, but they suggest the possibility of dangerous storms -- not in all of these areas, but in any of them.

As common as such "crazy" weather is becoming, it has not yet had a significant effect inside the Beltway, where members of Congress continue to reap rewards for inaction on climate change. Outside the Beltway, concern waxes and wanes, though a growing number of people do sense that something is not quite right.

Outside the country, worries grow about climate justice. As inconvenient -- and even deadly -- as climate change is becoming in the United States, it is a significantly greater threat in countries without adequate public and private resources to devote to adaptation.