This post comes to us from one of our readers, Scott Johnson. Scott is a local community climate advocate who is passionate about sharing fact-based, well-researched information on climate change. Back in March, he collaborated with the Sierra Club to host an event featuring KXAN Meteorologist David Yeomans.
Unfortunately, the event was canceled when the coronavirus outbreak began. But even in the midst of a pandemic, climate change is still important. The issue hasn’t gone away. If anything, our current crisis only seems to be teaching us lessons about how to respond to the climate crisis as well.
That’s why Scott and David wanted to make sure the info they had planned on sharing during March’s climate presentation still got out there. Below, you’ll find a video (shared with us via KXAN) featuring David and KXAN Chief Forecaster Jim Spencer talking about climate change in Central Texas in a video they filmed for the national NBC Facebook page in 2019. You’ll also find a bulleted list of some updated climate stats for our region.
A Few Key Facts (as shared by David):
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This was the third warmest March on record in Austin, with average hourly temps for the month running a 6-degree fever
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Meteorological winter (Dec-Feb) was Austin’s 8th warmest on record, with temperatures 3.1 degrees above normal… and this was true even with a handful of freezes
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Autumn 2019 was Austin’s 10th warmest on record
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2019 overall was Austin’s 9th warmest year on record
About David Yeomans
Two-time Emmy Award winning Meteorologist David Yeomans has been fascinated with the weather for as long as he can remember..
As a fifth-grader, he was a registered storm spotter for the National Weather Service. He went on to get Bachelors and Masters degrees in meteorology from the University of Miami.
He has called Austin home since 2001, and interned under Jim Spencer in the KXAN weather department between his freshman and sophomore years in college.
David is a published researcher on climate change under one of the lead IPCC authors, Dr. Brian Soden, studying the link between global warming and water vapor high in the atmosphere.
He also published research on hurricane formation and intensification for his Masters thesis, getting to fly onboard a Hurricane Hunter aircraft.