In 2022, we grappled with a severe drought. In 2023, it rained so much, businesses in Old Orchard Beach, Maine and New Hampshire’s White Mountains feared they might lose the whole tourist season. In Vermont, people spent much of the summer cleaning up from catastrophic floods that also affected farms in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The unpredictability and volatility is anything but normal for a New England summer. But with climate change, you might say we’re now beyond normal.
In this series from the New England News Collaborative, journalists across the region worked together to tell stories about how climate change is affecting what we know, love and rely on in New England summers.
Follow our reporting on nature and the outdoors on our new Instagram channel, Our New England.
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Heat, poor air quality, rain and flooding affected New England summer theater this year. -
Public health experts aren't sure how many people die because of the heat each year, because there's no standard for what constitutes a "heat-related" death. -
In New England, with extreme temperatures and excessive rain, it's been a tough growing year. While the increasing warmth could allow for new plant varieties and a longer growing season in the Northeast, southern diseases are also heading this way. -
Advocates for New England's cold-water fish — trout and salmon — say changes to their habitats are already impacting their longevity. -
More intense storms, rising sea levels, toxic algae blooms, and other environmental crises are making it harder for tribes to practice their culture and to pass it on. -
Poison ivy is poised to take full advantage of climate change. With warmer temperatures and rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists say poison ivy grows faster, its leaves get bigger and its toxic oil becomes even more virulent. -
Scientists expect poison ivy will take full advantage of warmer temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow faster and bigger, and become even more toxic. -
A new pilot program sends alerts to remind clinicians to talk to patients about protecting themselves on dangerously hot days, which are happening more frequently because of climate change. -
Cover cropping, high tunnels, and no-till planting are helping these farms thrive, even as rain and heat pose challenges. -
Trees provide a wide range of benefits, from filtering out air pollution, to improving mental health, to cooling city neighborhoods on hot summer days.
