Climate change? "It is clear it's happening," says a Cresco researcher

Cresco native Amy Bouska spent a lot of years crunching numbers at her job as an actuary.  Now returned to NE Iowa for her retirement, Bouska has taken up a new hobby--crunching weather statistics.

Bouska became concerned about climate change in recent years, but that's not the only reason she was attracted to poring over weather statistics from this area.  Decorah started keeping daily weather records in 1893, so there's plenty of information about temperatures, rainfall and other weather conditions.

She started by reviewing precipitation numbers for Decorah and something struck her right away--five of the eight years with the highest precipitation totals for Decorah have occurred since 2000.  The difference, she says, has been "significant" increases in rain in April, May and June.

She especially has looked for days with more than one inch of rainfall.  Those statistics led her to conclude "it is clear (climate change) is happening."

She says plant hardiness zones are now moving north--proof that temperatures are getting warmer.  In fact, she says farmers are now growing corn in La Crete, Alberta, Canada--some 1,644 kilometers north of the US border.

"This is kind of scary," she says of the impact of climate change.  Saving energy instead of using it will be the best approach to warding off future problems.  She says the National Climate Assessment is predicting temperatures could be as much as 9.49 degrees warmer in 2100 than they are now.