On April 22, 2016, the United States and other governments formally signed an agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement was reached in Paris in December 2015 (at the 21st Conference of the Parties [COP21] meeting). Its goal is to limit the increase in the annual average global temperature rise due to greenhouse gases to no more than 2 oC (3.6 oF) above pre-industrial levels. But this raises the question: how will the climate of a given state change by the time the annual mean global temperature reaches the agreed limit? Here, we provide an assessment for this for a number of states in the Northeast and Midwest prepared by members of the Climate System Research Center.
For further information, contact climate-inquiry@geo.umass.edu
Northeast
Connecticut
Delaware
Maine
Massachusetts
Maryland
New Jersey
New Hampshire
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Midwest
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Ohio
Wisconsin