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Climate Witness: Larry Crittenden, USA

Posted on 4 August 2008

Larry Crittenden lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas and frequently cycles 10 miles to work. Over the last 30 years he has see the winters get warmer and the summers get wetter. As a keen cyclist he is very concerned about what is happening with the climate.

My name is Larry Crittenden, I am 42 years old and I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas. I’m currently working as a manufacturing engineer and have an 18 year background in mechanical and electrical engineering. I am an avid and aggressive mountain/road cyclist and frequently cycle the meager 10 miles to work.

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Perhaps it’s the cycling that makes me a bit more sensitive toward and concerned with the climate conditions than many of my neighbors and fellow road users seem to be, but I have always tried to be conscious of what’s going on environmentally.

As a young man growing up in the Dallas Fort Worth area in the late 1970s, I was well accustomed to what ‘mother nature’ threw at us Texans on an annual basis. We had mild winters and periods of uncomfortably hot summer. The area was a lot smaller than it is now and had a lot less heat absorbing concrete and stone. In the spring, if you went to bed with a window open (and the screen closed) you could be lulled to sleep by the chirping of all the crickets there were outside. Now the crickets are almost completely gone, traffic has replaced their trill and the air quality has plummeted from good to commonly unhealthy.

Our winters in the 1970s often arrived late in the season, only turning cool in November, chilly in December, then in January and February one could expect snow and/or ice a time or two per week. One year 1982 if I remember correctly, we had an ice storm that was so severe it laid a one inch thick sheet of ice on everything. Two of my friends ice-skated to my house to see if I wanted to join them on the empty streets. Over the passing years the snows have dwindled. T-shirts can now be worn up to Christmas and as early as March, for anyone with good blood circulation.

I remember summers in the 1970s as being about two months of intense heat and enjoyable for two more months. I also remember them as fairly dry. In recent years, summers have increased in heat intensity and duration. Temperatures are now breaching 100 degrees more frequently and for longer periods during the dry spells and the swings of drought to flash flood are becoming more severe. This year 2007 has been one of, if not the wettest on record. By 10 July 2007 Texas had already met its annual rainfall level. Back in January 2007 we had several area lakes that were as much as 15 feet below normal level and are now showing several feet above.

In mid-August 2007, we appear to have returned to summer and are experiencing heat index temperatures of 103˚-107˚F. The normal average high for Aug. is 95˚Fahrenheit ¹. Our expected morning lows should be around 74˚F, but on 15th of August 2007 our morning low was 80˚F. If anyone searches for recorded temperature readings for this area they may notice an increasing number of times the 100’s appear over the last 30 summers which only gets more impressive the further back you look. Throughout the 1920’s and 1970’s not a single record high was reported. In the 1990’s there were 5 record highs set and in the 2000’s (so far) there are 4 new records. At this point you do not need be a university graduate to realize that at these temperatures cycling (or any sport activity) can be lethal in a very short space of time if unprepared or ill-equipped.

So far 2008 has proved as non-typical as 2007. April, for example, had what I think was a huge number of storms and severe weather activity. Baseball sized hail almost claimed my car one evening recently. Fortunately, I was in it at the time and was able to drive it to safe cover. I got away with 8 minor dents that are removable. Many other people weren’t so lucky. One town just outside the Dallas Fort Worth area had every police car windshield smashed out by the hail they received. Amazing that there wasn’t a single fatality or even injury with hail that size.

The temperatures for April finished out two degrees above our normal high of 75.9 F and one degree above normal low of 54 F. The precipitation was slightly above normal at 3.85 inches. Normal level for April is 3.2 inches. So far, we are also slightly above normal for our year-to-date level.

¹www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/CLIMO/dfw/normals/dfw08nrm.html

Scientific review

A scientific review by a member of the Climate Witness Science Advisory Panel is pending.

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