Heidi Cullen and The Weather of the Future

Air Date: August 30, 2011

Hour 1

August 2011 will go down in the books as the wettest month on record in the Philadelphia area – this is before the rainfall still being counted from this weekend’s Hurricane Irene. Every state of the country tied or set daily records in this July’s heat wave. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the United States this year has endured 9 separate disasters that cost billions of dollars and caused deep, worldwide economic effects. Drought is ravaging Texas and Oklahoma and the growing population in the arid Southwest has been trying to creatively hydrate its land. Our guest, climatologist HEIDI CULLEN, will help to explain the connection between climate change and the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing the last several years. Her book, recently out in paperback, is The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and other Scenes from a Climate Changed Planet. Cullen is a senior research scientist and communications director with Climate Central, a nonprofit climate news and research organization, and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University.

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[audio: 083011_100630.mp3]

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