March 14, 2024 | 7:00am - 8:15pm
Location: Zoom event.
Register here: https://princememorial.libcal.com/calendar/16477/sea-changes
Join a former professor of meteorology who lives on Chebeague Island and a coastal scientist who specializes in flood risk for an informative discussion on current and future coastal weather trends in Maine. Learn about the drivers of change in our climate, their role in the destructive January storms, and how they might shape weather events in the future. These two experts will also address what to consider in recovering from these extreme weather events, causes and predictions of sea level rise, and how tide gauges and community science can help manage risk.
About the presenters:
Between earning degrees in astronomy from Harvard and meteorology from McGill, Bill Danielson served in the U.S. Air Force as a weather forecaster in Oklahoma, in Limestone, Maine, and in Vietnam. For thirty years, he taught meteorology, climate, and astronomy, retiring as professor emeritus from the University of Hartford. He is author of articles, letters, and textbooks on weather- and climate-related topics. For a decade, he wrote a monthly newspaper column on Cape Breton’s weather and hosted a monthly weather hour on CBC in Nova Scotia. He has served as Board President at museums in Cape Breton and Wiscasset. Currently, he is a director of the Chebeague Island Historical Society and the Chebeague Climate Action Team.
Hannah Baranes is a coastal scientist in the Climate Center at Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Her focus is characterizing coastal flood risk in a way that is translatable to local and state-level decision-making. Her ongoing projects include developing a flood risk assessment tool for working waterfronts; improving flood forecasting by installing tide gauges alongside community science, education, and municipal engagement programs; designing the statistics for a statewide coastal flood risk model; and statistical modeling of water levels in tidal rivers. She is also a member of the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. Hannah received her B.A. in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geosciences from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
About the series: Weathering Climate Change: Understanding Shifts in Our Local Landscapes is an educational series of walks and talks aimed at informing, engaging, and uniting community members of Cumberland and Chebeague Island around local climate issues that impact us all. The series is offered in collaboration with Prince Memorial Library, the Cumberland Lands and Conservation Commission’s Sustainability Subcommittee, and the Chebeague Climate Action Team.