A March 3 tornado left Middle Tennessee devastated and at the beginning of a long road towards recovery and rebuilding. In the weeks since the event, Middle TN has seen an outpour of donations, volunteerism, and support from impacted communities and beyond, reminding us of the ways the community has come together surrounding past weather events, like the 2010 flood.
2020 Outlook
As we process, reflect, and look to rebuild from this event, many are wondering, how will we be better prepared for more extreme weather events to come in the future? While the recent tornado was devastating, Middle Tennessee is also familiar with flooding, droughts, and storms that can result in tornadoes like the ones we saw earlier this month.
The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s 2020 outlook favors above-normal temperatures and precipitation from the Mississippi Valley to the East Coast, while below-normal seasonal precipitation amounts are favored across southwestern Oregon, California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of West Texas. With 2019 coming in as the second- hottest year on record, we can anticipate that these trends and extreme weather events surrounding these trends will continue until we implement strategies to significantly reduce, or better yet, reverse the rate of climate change.
Until that happens, we must work together at a community, city, and state level to adapt to make our cities more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather events while also trying to mitigate them.
What are the types of extreme weather events?
Extreme weather events include:
- Drought
- Extreme heat
- Extreme Precipitation
- Hurricanes
- Tornadoes
- Wildfires
Learn more about each of these and their link to climate change here.
What are we concerned about in Tennessee?
Drought and “Flash Drought” — Just this past September 2019, Tennessee saw one of the hottest and driest Septembers on record. The combination of drought and extreme heat results in a “flash drought.” Drought affects crops, water resources, air quality, and increases the risk of heat-related illnesses.
Extreme Heat — In densely populated cities with low tree canopy and a lot of impervious surfaces, like Nashville and other cities, the urban heat island effect causes cities to be much hotter than surrounding areas as buildings and pavement absorb and give off heat throughout the day and night. With extreme heat comes heat-related illnesses, increased demand for cooling, and hotter rivers and streams. Extreme heat can also create conditions for wildfires.
Extreme Precipitation — A hotter atmosphere is a thirstier atmosphere. With warmer temperatures come greater water holding capacity in the atmosphere. An atmosphere with more moisture can produce more frequent and heavier rainfall, increasing flooding, erosion, and pollution.
“In 2010, almost 20 inches of rain fell in the Nashville, Tennessee, area over three days. Losses in Nashville alone totaled over $1 billion.” (source)
Tornadoes — While climate change is anticipated to affect tornado activity, that connection is still being studied by scientists. However, Tennessee is part of a region of enhanced tornadic activity extending between the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains called Dixie Alley. (source)
How can we increase resiliency to these events?
The Cumberland River Compact works to enhance the health and enjoyment of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. We feel our work in education, restoration, and planning initiatives is more important than ever to both meet our mission, as well as to help increase the resiliency of communities through environmental and education initiatives.
Here are some of the ways we are working to improve the resilience of the communities we work in:
- Root Nashville – this public/private partnership developed a campaign to plant 500,000 trees in Davidson County by 2050. After discovering that Nashville had lost 15% of its tree canopy from 2008 to 2016, the city recommended a tree-planting campaign that aligned with Metro Nashville’s vision for livability and environmental quality. The campaign is approaching its 10,000 tree milestone since launching in October of 2018! This Nashville-based campaign aims to address the urban heat island effect, prioritizing disproportionately affected communities in Davidson County. Learn more about Root Nashville.
- Climate Adaptive Green Infrastructure – The Compact employs innovative stormwater techniques to help slow and filter stormwater that would otherwise enter a creek. Our projects are also designed to be able to handle increased rainfall expected from extreme weather events. Examples of this can be found in our recent project to increase the resiliency of Mill Creek. Another example is our work to Depave impervious surfaces, and replace them with absorbent surfaces.
- Sustainable Agriculture – Improving soil health has a range of benefits including cleaning our water, sinking atmospheric carbon, boosting soil productivity, and increasing resiliency to floods and droughts. The Compact is working with farmers, NRCS partners, and Soil Conservation Districts to help promote and implement practices like cover crops and no-till that help to improve and build our soils and reduce chemicals and sediment entering streams.
- Education – Our work in youth and community education helps to solidify the understanding of people’s connection to and impact on the Cumberland River Basin. In early February 2020 over 60 youth gathered in the River Center at the Cumberland River Compact to share information about climate change and to come up with neighborhood-based solutions to climate change. More to come on this in a future post.
