Climate Change Is Making Cambridge’s Winters ‘Weird,’ Local Sustainability Experts Say

Climate change is leading to warmer winters in Cambridge — meaning more snowfall, more flooding, and more headaches for residents, according to two local sustainability experts who spoke at the Cambridge Public Library on Tuesday.

The talk — titled “Winter Weirding” because of its focus on strange seasonal weather — featured Kendra White, a climate resilience manager at Cambridge’s Office of Sustainability, and Natalie Reeder, the Cambridge senior program manager at All In Energy. White and Reeder discussed how Cambridge residents are likely to experience the effects of climate change and laid out available resources.

“No matter what your situation is, whether you’re a renter or an owner, no matter how much income you have, there are actions you can take to address this on a really local level as something that’s a global phenomenon,” Reeder said.

The Cambridge Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, a detailed report released in 2015 and 2017, evaluated risks to Cambridge from rising temperatures, precipitation, and sea levels.

“What it found was that we are having warmer winters,” said White. “And overall, our climate is warming across all seasons.”

These rising temperatures lead to more and faster-melting snowfall in the winter, an increase in storms and surge flooding, and extreme weather fluctuations. Cambridge’s infrastructure may take a beating as a result: drains may be unable to handle the influx of water, basements may flood, and pipes may freeze.

Both White and Reeder provided lists of resources that Cambridge offers to support its residents. The FloodViewer mapping tool from its Department of Public Works, for example, provides information about the risk of flooding for every home in Cambridge. The Cambridge Energy Helpline, also run by the city, provides services like an Energy Bill Check-Up, which helps residents assess how they can decrease spending on energy.

White said another key strategy was engaging in “social resilience”: knowing one’s neighbors and being able to rely on them. Sustainable Cambridge, a city-wide climate change mitigation and adaptation initiative, runs a program that can provide $300 worth of funding to support residents in hosting block parties, for the purpose of connecting with neighbors, White said.

“Having your neighbors be someone that you can reach out to yourself and also that you can be looking out for them, is actually life saving and one of the most important things for us to remember,” White said. “You may not have all of these things in your emergency kit or your batteries or flashlights, but your neighbor might. Or they might not have some kind of medical condition, but they don't have any family nearby, and their cell phone dies, and they don't have anyone to check in on them.”

“Data shows that communities that are more connected socially actually recover from disasters more effectively than communities that aren’t,” she added later in the talk.

White said that developing local climate change responses can help residents feel more agency while facing the impacts of a global crisis.

“It's important for us to really understand how we can prepare ourselves locally and feel empowered as well, and not just completely out of control in this changing climate,” White said.