Join us for this informative discussion on current and future coastal weather trends in Maine. Learn about what drives change in our climate, how it affected the recent destructive January storms, and how it might shape weather events in the future. Our featured speakers include a former professor of meteorology who lives on Chebeague Island and a coastal scientist who specializes in flood risk. They will also address what to consider in recovering from these extreme weather events, causes and predictions of sea level rise, and how tide gauges and community science can help manage risk.

Registration is required for this virtual event. See registration link below.

Hannah Baranes, PhD is a coastal scientist in the Climate Center at Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Her focus is characterizing coastal flood risk in a way that is translatable to local and state-level decision-making. Her ongoing projects include developing a flood risk assessment tool for working waterfronts; improving flood forecasting by installing tide gauges alongside community science, education, and municipal engagement programs; designing the statistics for a statewide coastal flood risk model; and statistical modeling of water levels in tidal rivers. She is also a member of the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, served as a review editor on the Fifth National Climate Assessment, and co-authored the City of Boston’s regional climate projections report. Hannah received her B.A. in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geosciences from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Bill Danielson served in the U.S. Air Force as a weather forecaster in Oklahoma, in Limestone, Maine, and in Vietnam between earning degrees in astronomy from Harvard and meteorology from McGill. For 30 years, Bill taught meteorology, climate, and astronomy, retiring as professor emeritus from the University of Hartford. He is author of articles, letters, and textbooks on weather and climate-related topics. For a decade, he wrote a monthly newspaper column on Cape Breton’s weather and hosted a monthly weather hour on CBC in Nova Scotia. He has served as board president at museums in Cape Breton and Wiscasset. Currently he is a director of the Chebeague Island Historical Society and the Chebeague Climate Action Team.

About the series: Weathering Climate Change: Understanding Shifts in Our Local Landscapes is an educational series of walks and talks aimed at informing, engaging, and uniting community members of Cumberland and Chebeague Island around local climate issues that impact us all. The series is offered in collaboration with Chebeague and Cumberland Land Trust (CCLT), Sustainable Cumberland, ME, and the Chebeague Climate Action Team.