the state is bracing for the remnants of

hurricane ida and it's already been a

hot and rainy summer season so a new

climate report comes as no surprise to

many landing new jersey at the top of

the list of states getting warmer

according to the national oceanic and

atmospheric administration or noaa new

jersey's temperature has warmed faster

than that of any other state in the last

100 years increasing by an average of

2.55 degrees alaska delaware and arizona

are close behind data shows winters here

are not as cold spring and summer are

also generally warmer add to the summer

heat all the heavy rain we've had lately

with more on the way hurricane ida is

tracking toward new jersey and is

expected to bring with it heavy flooding

this week melissa rose cooper reports as

part of our ongoing series on the human

stories of climate change peril and

promise

after devastating louisiana ripping up

homes and leaving hundreds of people

stranded in flooded waters the remnants

of hurricane ida are heading to the

garden state the storm was you know i

think the one of the worst that the

region has seen and that's saying a lot

considering it came on the same day as

katrina obviously for new orleans

thankfully the levees upheld themselves

but the damage we saw in new orleans

obviously isn't just disappearing and so

what we're seeing with the remnants of

hurricane ida is that we will still get

a wallop uh here in new jersey

especially in south jersey now a

tropical depression ida is expected to

hit our area tomorrow with the potential

of creating more damage for parts of

jersey already impacted when henry

passed through the state a week ago we

can expect a lot of rain three inches

probably a minimum for most of the state

with four or five or even six inches of

rain falling in localized areas and so

with that much rain especially given how

wet the ground is after andre we should

expect a lot of flash flooding

overnight wednesday when the heaviest

rain should be falling and then

as the system departs all that water

will flow into the rivers and so some

fairly substantial river flooding uh

would be possible

heading you know thursday into friday

it's not people's imagination we are

seeing just a historic number of rain

events right last summer was a historic

number of hurricanes experts saying this

summer could be one of the wettest on

record dating back to the early 1930s

we're not even in september and we've

we've already gotten hit by henry about

to get hit by ida we had tropical storm

elsa kind of give a

glancing below in early july

you know what we're really seeing right

now is the impacts of climate change uh

and one of the you know sadly one of the

uh impacts is going to continue is that

we're going to see more extreme

precipitation events and that's not just

hurricanes although that's what we're

dealing with uh right now with ida it

also just means more rainstorms and

thunderstorms

more nor'easters and so

places that see flooding like the shore

are going to see more of it communities

that haven't experienced flooding

should be on the lookout the national

weather service issuing a flash flooding

watch for most of the state and with the

storm comes the potential for power

outages p.s eng releasing a statement

saying in part we're closely monitoring

the weather and preparing for heavy rain

and potential flooding we are staffed

and ready to respond to issues as they

arise if fossil i would definitely stay

off the roads wednesday night when the

flash flood threat will be the highest

and although we are in the height of

hurricane season it's not officially

over until november so experts say more

extreme weather events are possible

because if we keep on getting hit

by nor'easters and tropical storms

we are going to continue to see more and

more flooding and that really is um an

impact directly from climate change more

extreme partic more extreme weather more

extreme precipitation events um so the

two are obviously very very linked to

this this is increasingly our new normal

a normal that experts say we can expect

to see for future hurricane seasons to

come

for nj spotlight news i'm melissa rose

cooper

lead funding for paralymp promise is

provided by dr p roy vagalos and diana t

vagalos

major support is provided by the mark

haas foundation and sue and edgar

wachenheim iii and the cheryl and philip

milstein family

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