Seattle Listed As One Of The Best Cities To Handle Climate Change

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SEATTLE — Ask anyone why they live in Western Washington and they'll almost certainly mention our lush forests, clear waterways and temperate climate (if you can handle some rain, that is). Well, turns out those three things also make Seattle and the Puget Sound region in general a great place to live if you want to avoid some of the impacts of climate change.

According to a recent ranking from Policygenius of the top 50 largest urban areas in the United States, Seattle is actually the second most climate resilient city in the nation, only beat out by San Francisco. Researchers say they reached that conclusion by weighing a couple of key factors, including heat and humidity, flooding and sea levels, climate-related disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, air quality, social vulnerability — city’s susceptibility to death, injury, and disruption from weather events — and community resilience, how well the community has worked to adapt to recent changes.

Ultimately, the researchers ranked the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro highly because Western Washington has a temperate climate, with few days of extreme heat or humidity. Our soggy weather also means that local wildfire risks are low, even if we do feel the brunt of smoke flowing in from California or eastern Washington.

The one thing holding Puget Sound back is flooding: just under ten percent of Puget Sound properties are expected to be in 100-year flood zones by 2050. Rising sea levels are predicted to impact about 0.35 percent of local properties, but that's actually below the national average of 1.35 percent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/seattle-listed-as-one-of-the-best-cities-to-handle-climate-change/ar-AAW0VuY

[Native]

1. I never thought a coastal city would be a safe haven. Just wow.

[cbabe]

2. Not costal. Seattle is on Puget Sound. The Olympic mountains are between Seattle and Pacific.

[plimsoll]

3. The Skagit delta kind of takes it in the shorts though.

Those flood maps show a major portion of the Skagit delta underwater. But hey, tulips, we'll build dykes around the whole place.

[cbabe]

4. WA costal tribes relocating

…“Climate change and rising sea levels are threatening coastal communities across our region – including the homelands of several of our region’s tribes,” said Rep. Kilmer. “The federal government has an obligation to fulfill its trust and treaty responsibilities and to make sure that people aren’t put at risk. It’s a big deal that this funding for the Quinault Indian Nation, the Quileute Tribe, and the Hoh Tribe, has passed the House. I’ll keep pushing to ensure these tribal communities get the support they need as they seek to move to higher ground and keep their people out of harm’s way.” (More)

https://kilmer.house.gov/news/press-releases/kilmer-secures-federal-funding-for-three-tribal-relocation-efforts-in-western-washington