In the beginning of November 2024, Connecticut experienced record-high temperatures. Hamden saw temperatures as high as 75 degrees.
Climate change has caused an increase of temperatures across the world and its effects are prominent, including in Hamden.
“We’re seeing monthly records being broken on a semi-regular basis these days,” said Ryan Hanrahan, chief meteorologist at NBC Connecticut. “We can see that in Hamden and in Connecticut. We’re seeing warmer summers than we’ve seen before. Particularly, the nights are getting warmer, so the daytime highs aren’t getting warmer as quickly as the overnight lows, so we’re seeing fewer and fewer cool nights in the summer.”
The high temperatures and dry conditions led Connecticut officials to call for a red flag warning in November, meaning there is a higher risk of brush fires across the state. The Hamden Fire Department was prepared for this warning.
“Luckily in the town of Hamden, our fire stations are strategically placed to help our response times to contain some of the fires we’ve seen over the past two months,” said Jeffery Naples, the Hamden fire chief and emergency management director. “As we’ve seen, there’s been an upstick of brush fires and wildfires due to the (lack of) rain, low humidity and high winds.”
The Hamden Fire Department utilizes two brush fire trucks and an ATV that has brush fire fighting capabilities to prevent brush fires from becoming larger. The equipment along with multiple accessible fire hydrants also helps the town’s fire fighters effectively put out fires, according to Naples
Wildfires across the U.S. can have major impacts, even from other parts of the country. Hamden and other towns in southern Connecticut could smell the smoke of wildfires in New Jersey in early November.
“I think people don’t necessarily realize that what happens hundreds or even thousands of miles away from us will actually impact us too,” Hanrahan said. “We’re seeing these weather patterns change on a global scale.”
Wildfire smoke is one of the many factors that can cause poor air quality in Hamden. Wind patterns can bring other pollutants to the state.
“That’s because we have a lot of prevailing winds (that) bring an awful lot of combustion byproducts from the Midwest, from Ohio and Michigan, all those industries. (The winds) bring their air quality here,” said Nikki Barratt, visiting assistant professor of environmental science at Quinnipiac University.
In addition to the winds carrying pollutants towards Connecticut, the traffic buildup on I-95 and the Merritt Parkway is another cause for this issue.
Lung cancer, pneumonia, stroke and other health issues are related to poor air quality, according to the World Health Organization. Between 2017-2021, there have been alarming rates of lung cancer in three particular counties: Windham, New London and New Haven. New Haven experienced 59.7 cases per 100,000 people.
“Air quality has been linked to a variety of negative impacts, the obvious ones (are) human health,” said Robert Hansen, an associate professor of chemistry at Quinnipiac University and atmospheric chemist. “Breathing these pollutants caused by the hotter days, by the heat waves.”
Climate change doesn’t just have an effect on humans; there is a heavy impact on local species.
“But there are also a lot of these other things tied to climate change, like bird migration cycles, insects too,” Hansen said. “The seasonality of birds, insects and all that can be related to climate change, and that can have impacts on crops, people, (plants) that are grown commercially, but also plants are grown in people’s backyards.”
Sugar maples could be affected by the changing temperatures. The trees, known for their vibrant leaves during the fall, are found across the east coast of the U.S. and Canada, as well as the midwest of the U.S. Changes in the environment can have a chain reaction in affecting the food web.
“As the temperature heats up, we are getting changes in the species of plants that live here,” Barratt said. “Sugar maples are at the very southern end now of their distribution. And I think losing sugar maples would be really tough, they’re only going to be able to live north of here. Then all the animals that depend on all the plants that are here. The plants are the basis of the food web, and if the plants change, then the animals have to change.”
Through Barratt’s specialization in climate modeling, she has insight on what climate change could do to Hamden in the near future, including more intense storms in New England.
“We have the Mill River that runs past (Quinnipiac) and then through Hamden, down through New Haven, into the (Long Island) Sound,” Barratt said. “And so if we have bigger storms we could have more erosion right in that river.”
The erosion could dump sediment into the river, which could suffocate any organisms living in the river.
Mill River also feeds into Lake Whitney in southern Hamden. Lake Whitney Dam, also known as Goose Dam, was rebuilt in 2022. Without it, heavy rainfall, storms and flooding caused by climate change would be a safety and financial burden for many residents.
“We’ve had a number of severe and atypical storms and those create a lot of waste and cost a lot of money to clean up after,” said Joe DiRisi, Hamden’s recycling coordinator.
Climate change is predicted to have a detrimental impact on Connecticut in the upcoming decades. Extreme weather patterns are expected to worsen, while 24,000 acres of land will be lost in Connecticut by 2088, according to Connecticut’s climate booklet. Additionally, 61% of Connecticut’s residents live in a flood risk area as of August 2020.
There are actions that the town of Hamden can take to become more sustainable.
“I would certainly like (Hamden) to be an example,” DiRisi said. “We have a lot of (sustainability) programs and there’s a few things. One very tangible, specific thing would be we compost out own food waste.”
Composting will change food waste into fertilizer, which would benefit the native plants.
DiRisi believes Hamden should create an ordinance to guarantee that a percentage of materials from building demolitions and renovations should be recycled.
“I salvage buildings and contents, so you can take all that material and locally manufacture it into a product so you can get a double boost. You can reduce waste and you get economic activity out of it,” DiRisi said.
Residents can also do their part to protect themselves from the effects of climate change.
“The best thing that (residents) can do is just to adhere to any warnings,” Naples said. “We had a fire warning. We were asking residents to not burn, to be very careful and cautious when (they’re) leaving their lawnmower running outside and other sources of ignition outdoors.”
There are multiple ways that people can make an impact in becoming more sustainable in their everyday lives. Taking public transportation, advocating for governments to be more environmentally conscious and educating themselves about climate change are a few of the many ways people can help themselves or the environment.
“People are good.” Barratt said. “I fully believe that 99.99% of people on this planet are good people who want to do the right thing. They either don’t know (about) what it is, or there are barriers to them doing the right thing.”