New Jersey Climate. SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2014 v8n1 p0409
New Jersey has had an official state climatologist since 1979. The job of the climatologist is to collect climate data, be a faculty member at the largest New Jersey state university, Rutgers University, and to have data accessible. This is a non-political appointment, whatever elected officials and business people want to do with the data is their business.
The current climatologist has been happily and enthusiastically in that role since 1991. Dr David A Robinson is a geographer by training and he loves snow. He measures it, photographs it, analyses it, travels on it. He told us that in the beginning of April he put away his cross-country skis. Sadly.
In Cherry Hill Public Library, close to where I live in Camden County, Dr Robinson told a group brought together by green activists that we had more snow this winter (2013-2014) than is usual in New Jersey, and that the overall temperatures were colder than usual, but that the overall trend, since the 1880s, is that the average winter temperature is trending higher.
He told us that what was really unusual about this winter is that we had 20 days around the state with more than 2 inches of snow. In Camden County, I had counted 17: some snow did not come here. Which is because of how New Jersey is laid out.
New Jersey is one of the smaller states in the union, but is the most densely populated, and is in the top 3 states with highest per capita income. We have lots of people, we have lots of money, and we have lots of beaches.
The picture above I took the day after Hurricane Irene, in August 2011, which was the last major drenching we had in Camden County. Camden County stretches from the Delaware River towards the coast, but where I am, in Haddonfield, we are 50 miles from the closest beach. We avoided catastrophe during Superstorm Sandy which swept and blew away beach communities. We seem to be in a favored pocket: weather events are always more extreme to the west, in Philadelphia, or to the east, or north.
Below is a map of New Jersey taken from the New Jersey Climatalogist's official website, showing the temperatures taken in measuring stations all over the state. These measuring stations record daily temperatures and precipitation, and are the basis of historical record, and predictions of heating, cooling and precipitation events. Consumers, and businesses, need to know ho much fuel to buy, how many snow shovels they will need, how many air conditioners will be on during a hot day in August.
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I was a little confused when I saw the plastic water bottles in front of the 3 guest speakers. Disposable plastic bottles are a huge pollutant, and completely unnecessary in Camden County where the water is clean, good and monitored. However, none of the panelists drank from a disposable water bottle, and you can see that Mr Tancini brought his own reusable water bottle.
Dr Robinson has in front of him a plastic water gauge. He is looking for volunteers to measure rain that fell in the past 24 hours, every 24 hours. Go to the New Jersey Climatology site to volunteer.
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Dr Trudy Heller,
founder and president of Executive Education for the Environment, and lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Master of Environmental Studies Program.
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From Tony Tancini, an attorney and Senior Analyst at Marstel-Day. He is a Master of Environmental Studies from the Wharton School in 2010
"Sustainable Cherry Hill, an NGO located in Cherry
Hill, NJ that engages local business leaders and helps them integrate
sustainable design into everyday business practices.
"I developed the sustainability template for Sustainable Cherry Hill which
will also be incorporated into Cherry Hill Township's efforts to build a
sustainable business community. The project analyzes several business
models of sustainable design and instructional programs that teach
others how to move towards sustainability. The result is a template
that will help the South Jersey business community become more energy
efficient, conserve water, reduce waste and decrease toxins and
pollutants."
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