How has your community been impacted by climate change?

Eastern Washington State is a strange place to live.  So many people think "Washington" and see green trees and water views.  Our side of the hill (Cascade Mountain Range) is a desert, with no natural evergreens, but a rich volcanic soil that when you add fertilizer and water you grow two-thirds of the whole nation's apples (and hops are pretty big too).  The Tree Top company is headquartered in Selah, my home town.  It's funny that climate change isn't having a major negative impact on us though.  More wildfires for sure, but that's because we're getting more rainfall not less.  However the extremes are real.  We might have record snowfall, but the hot summer comes around and by August we're seeing smoke everywhere!  But with more rain, the crops do really well.  The trend is for rain to fall, such as atmospheric rivers, instead of snow, and unfortunately when that happens, the water isn't available to late summer crops.  With too much rain, we will grow head-high sagebrush that turns into an inferno by summer's end.  But, living in a region where only the occasional volcano can kill you isn't too bad (May 18th 1980 was the last one).  We don't have tornadoes, floods are localized, few earthquakes (on our side of the mountains) and no hurricanes.  At least you can afford home insurance in these parts.

What Climate Change Means for Washington

Climate Hub USDA

Photo is my own-

 Bryan Dibble , what an accurate and succinct picture of climate change in our state. Since I also live in Eastern Washington, I couldn't have said your description any better. 

I will only add one thing to your information. That is the ongoing saga of our dams. The Columbia and Snake Rivers, running right through eastern and southeastern Washington, and heavily dammed, are subjects of the debate on human factors upsetting nature. 

Dams create reservoirs, as you know. Those backed-up waters provide needed irrigation for farmers, recreational opportunities for water sports, and a lot of hydroelectric power. But lakes make lazy rivers which travel more slowly and warm more extensively. This is very bad for migrating cold-water salmon up and down the river. As temperature extremes get more extreme, there's more of an issue. 

For these reasons and many others, the dam debate is one of eco-political-environmental-Tribal, and local consequence. 

 Bryan Dibble , what an accurate and succinct picture of climate change in our state. Since I also live in Eastern Washington, I couldn't have said your description any better. 

I will only add one thing to your information. That is the ongoing saga of our dams. The Columbia and Snake Rivers, running right through eastern and southeastern Washington, and heavily dammed, are subjects of the debate on human factors upsetting nature. 

Dams create reservoirs, as you know. Those backed-up waters provide needed irrigation for farmers, recreational opportunities for water sports, and a lot of hydroelectric power. But lakes make lazy rivers which travel more slowly and warm more extensively. This is very bad for migrating cold-water salmon up and down the river. As temperature extremes get more extreme, there's more of an issue. 

For these reasons and many others, the dam debate is one of eco-political-environmental-Tribal, and local consequence.