A City Prepares for a Warm Long-Term Forecast

A City Prepares for a Warm Long-Term Forecast

CHICAGO — The Windy City is preparing for a heat wave — a permanent one.
Changes in the Air

Climate scientists have told city planners that based on current trends, Chicago will feel more like Baton Rouge than a Northern metropolis before the end of this century.

So, Chicago is getting ready for a wetter, steamier future. Public alleyways are being repaved with materials that are permeable to water. The white oak, the state tree of Illinois, has been banned from city planting lists, and swamp oaks and sweet gum trees from the South have been given new priority. Thermal radar is being used to map the city’s hottest spots, which are then targets for pavement removal and the addition of vegetation to roofs. And air-conditioners are being considered for all 750 public schools, which until now have been heated but rarely cooled.

“Cities adapt or they go away,” said Aaron N. Durnbaugh, deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment. “Climate change is happening in both real and dramatic ways, but also in slow, pervasive ways. We can handle it, but we do need to acknowledge it. We are on a 50-year cycle, but we need to get going.”

Continued:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/sc...tion.html?_r=1


It's unbelievable how many green roofs are going in. Most of the buildings around me have them, plus they are nice to look at. The city is looking to replace alleys with permeable pavers. They look like old fashioned brick streets, but they are smooth to drive, bike, or roll strollers over on, and you don't need storm drains...although cities put them in anyways in the event of a flash flood.

Pavers are nasty when icy.

This thread is not about conspiracy theories or doomsday topics. Keep that stuff to yourself. Had some of these technologies in the article been around sooner, Chicago could have avoided constructing 3 billion $ worth of tunnels hundreds of feet below the ground for our stormwater problem. It's a project the public will never appreciate because they can't see it. Yet there's other ways the city can reduce the environmental footprint.

I don't think so. Due to La Nina, Chicago will only get about three heatwaves from the period of late June to early August. This short heatwave will last 3 to 6 days every 3 to 5 weeks. This short heatwave will effect Detroit, Minneapolis and New York City. Longer Heat waves will effect at the western U.S. cities and up to Pacific Northwest Cities [[ except Seattle and Portland) Boise and Spokane will be the hot spots for the longer heatwave.

Considering that you've had one of the chilliest springs in Michigan in years, and us here in Las Vegas are about to experience our first May without a 100 degree reading in fifty years, I think it's all BS.