Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mapping the shadow of experience of extreme weather events

  • Letter
  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Climate change will increase the frequency and/or intensity of certain extreme weather events, and perceived experience with extreme weather may influence climate change beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. However, the aspects of extreme events that influence whether or not people perceive that they have personally experienced them remain unclear. We investigate (1) the correspondence of reported experience of extreme weather events with documented events, and (2) how characteristics of different extreme events shape the geographic area within which people are likely to report they have experienced it—the event’s perceived “shadow of experience.” We overlay geocoded survey responses indicating personal experience with hurricanes, tornadoes, and drought—from a 2012 nationally representative survey (N = 1,008) of U.S. residents—on maps of recorded event impacts. We find that reported experiences correspond well with recorded event impacts, particularly for hurricanes and tornadoes. Reported experiences were related to event type, proximity, magnitude and duration. The results suggest locations where disaster preparedness efforts and climate change education campaigns could be most effective after an extreme weather event.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akerlof K, Maibach EW, Fitzgerald D et al (2013) Do people “personally experience” global warming, and if so how, and does it matter? Glob Environ Chang 21:81–91. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.07.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley A, Turner R (2005) Spatstat: an R package for analyzing spatial point patterns. J Stat Softw 12:1–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody SD, Zahran S, Vedlitz A, Grover H (2008) Examining the relationship between physical vulnerability and public perceptions of global climate change in the United States. Environ Behav 40:72–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callegaro M, DiSogra C (2008) Computing response metrics for online panels. Public Opin Q 72:1008–1032. doi:10.1093/poq/nfn065

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang L, Krosnick JA (2009) National surveys via RDD telephone interviewing versus the internet: comparing sample representativeness and response quality. Public Opin Q 73:641–678. doi:10.1093/poq/nfp075

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coumou D, Rahmstorf S (2012) A decade of weather extremes. Nat Clim Chang 2:491–496. doi:10.1038/nclimate1452

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies TM, Hazelton ML, Marshall JC (2011) Sparr: analyzing spatial relative risk using fixed and adaptive kernel density estimation in R. J Stat Softw 39:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Egan PJ, Mullin M (2012) Turning personal experience into political attitudes: the effect of local weather on Americans’ perceptions about global warming. J Polit 74:796–809. doi:10.1017/S0022381612000448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goebbert K, Jenkins-Smith HC, Klockow K et al (2012) Weather, climate and worldviews: the sources and consequences of public perceptions of changes in local weather patterns. Weather Clim Soc 4:132–144. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-11-00044.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton LC, Stampone MD (2013) Blowin’ in the wind: short-term weather and belief in anthropogenic climate change. Weather Clim Soc 5:112–119. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-12-00048.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartter J, Stampone MD, Ryan SJ et al (2012) Patterns and perceptions of climate change in a biodiversity conservation hotspot. PLoS ONE 7:e32408. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howe PD, Leiserowitz A (2013) Who remembers a hot summer or a cold winter? The asymmetric effect of beliefs about global warming on perceptions of local climate conditions in the U.S. Glob Environ Chang 23:1488–1500. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.09.014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howe PD, Markowitz EM, Lee TM et al (2013) Global perceptions of local temperature change. Nat Clim Chang 3:352–356. doi:10.1038/nclimate1768

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2012) Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Leiserowitz A, Maibach E, Roser-Renouf C, Hmielowski JD (2012) Extreme weather, climate & preparedness in the American mind. Yale University and George Mason University, Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, New Haven, CT

  • Maibach EW, Cobb S, Leiserowitz A et al (2011) A national survey of television meteorologists about climate change: education. George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, Fairfax

    Google Scholar 

  • Marin A (2010) Riders under storms: contributions of nomadic herders’ observations to analysing climate change in Mongolia. Glob Environ Chang 20:162–176. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.10.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marx SM, Weber EU, Orlove BS et al (2007) Communication and mental processes: experiential and analytic processing of uncertain climate information. Glob Environ Chang 17:47–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGee TK, McFarlane BL, Varghese J (2009) An examination of the influence of hazard experience on wildfire risk perceptions and adoption of mitigation measures. Soc Nat Resour 22:308. doi:10.1080/08941920801910765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers TA, Maibach EW, Roser-Renouf C et al (2013) The relationship between personal experience and belief in the reality of global warming. Nat Clim Chang 3:343–347. doi:10.1038/nclimate1754

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NCDC (2013) Storm Events Database | National Climatic Data Center. In: Natl Ocean Atmospheric Adm. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/. Accessed 17 Sept 2013

  • NCDC (2012) State of the climate: annual 2011. National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  • Peterson TC, Stott PA, Herring S (2012) Explaining extreme events of 2011 from a climate perspective. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 93:1041–1067. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00021.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruddell D, Harlan SL, Grossman-Clarke S, Chowell G (2012) Scales of perception: public awareness of regional and neighborhood climates. Clim Chang 111:581–607. doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0165-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudman LA, McLean MC, Bunzl M (2013) When truth is personally inconvenient, attitudes change: the impact of extreme weather on implicit support for green politicians and explicit climate-change beliefs. Psychol Sci 24:2290–2296. doi:10.1177/0956797613492775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silver A, Andrey J (2014) The influence of previous disaster experience and sociodemographics on protective behaviors during two successive tornado events. Weather Clim Soc 6:91–103. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-13-00026.1

  • SPC (2013) Storm Prediction Center severe weather GIS (SVRGIS). In: Natl Ocean Atmospheric Adm Natl Weather Serv. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/gis/svrgis/. Accessed 17 Sept 2013

  • Spence A, Poortinga W, Butler C, Pidgeon NF (2011) Perceptions of climate change and willingness to save energy related to flood experience. Nat Clim Chang 1:46–49. doi:10.1038/nclimate1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoffle RW, Traugott MW, Stone JV et al (1991) Risk perception mapping: using ethnography to define the locally affected population for a low-level radioactive waste storage facility in Michigan. Am Anthropol 93:611–635. doi:10.1525/aa.1991.93.3.02a00050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone JV (2001) Risk perception mapping and the Fermi II nuclear power plant: toward an ethnography of social access to public participation in Great Lakes environmental management. Environ Sci Pol 4:205–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tierney KJ (2007) From the margins to the mainstream? Disaster research at the crossroads. Annu Rev Sociol 33:503–525. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wachinger G, Renn O, Begg C, Kuhlicke C (2013) The risk perception paradox—implications for governance and communication of natural hazards. Risk Anal 33:1049–1065. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01942.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaalberg R, Midden C, Meijnders A, McCalley T (2009) Prevention, adaptation, and threat denial: flooding experiences in the Netherlands. Risk Anal 29:1759–1778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaval L, Keenan EA, Johnson EJ, Weber EU (2014) How warm days increase belief in global warming. Nat Clim Chang 4:143–147. doi:10.1038/nclimate2093

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao X, Maibach E, Gandy J et al (2014) Climate change education through TV weathercasts: results of a field experiment. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 95:117–130. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00144.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment and Society, Quinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University, 5215 Old Main Hill, Logan, 84322, UT, USA

    Peter D. Howe

  2. Department of Sociology, School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Hilary Boudet

  3. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Anthony Leiserowitz

  4. Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Edward W. Maibach

Authors
  1. Peter D. Howe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hilary Boudet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anthony Leiserowitz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Edward W. Maibach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter D. Howe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Howe, P.D., Boudet, H., Leiserowitz, A. et al. Mapping the shadow of experience of extreme weather events. Climatic Change 127, 381–389 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1253-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1253-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation