Trending
Mother Nature generally has spared Pennsylvania the number and magnitude of weather calamities that Florida, the Carolinas and Gulf Coast states almost routinely have experienced.
However, troubling weather events have been on the rise in the Keystone State, and officials have been studying ways to become more proficient at warning the public about possible pending dangers.
Now they believe they have made progress toward that goal, and it is reasonable to assume that they are correct, considering what is being put in place.
An article in the Mirror's Aug. 7 edition provided a glimpse of that progress.
Under the headline "Flood warning system updated," the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency reported that "the Pennsylvania Integrated Flood Warning and Observation System is (now) known as IFLOWS 2.0 and will include the installation of 30 new weather stations across the state. Most of these will be placed on school properties, where K-12 students will incorporate the data into their weather curricula."
According to the article, weather experts say it is "only a matter of time" before more severe flooding impacts Pennsylvania.
Although those experts are deeply concerned about the areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River in Central Pennsylvania, especially Harrisburg, the Keystone State's seat of government, the concern extends outward in all directions.
Even portions of the Southern Alleghenies region felt the impacts of "the changing weather" this year, with threats of flooding seemingly increasing and extending to areas that have not had such weather fears in the past - also actual flooding.
And even Pennsylvania's southern neighbor, Maryland, experienced more than its traditional share of bad weather as that state was looking forward to calm spring and summer conditions that instead were slow in arriving.
Regarding Pennsylvania locations such as Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, older residents of the commonwealth can recall vividly the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, not even sparing the Governor's Mansion, which is situated in close proximity to the Susquehanna, from damage. Meanwhile, it was five years later - 1977 - when a stalled weather system wreaked massive flooding and death on Johnstown and its surrounding areas.
But those storms were regarded as isolated incidents -- in Johnstown's case a "100-year storm" or longer.
However, the frequency of what is happening at this time can in no way be characterized as isolated; every spring, residents in flood-prone areas have cause for being nervous of what might befall them in the days and weeks ahead.
At the same time, the milder spring conditions that in the past had achieved expectations have in many ways given way to a winter-to-summer pattern in which spring either is of minimum duration or almost nowhere to be found.
Those who contend that the weather hasn't undergone changes are wrong.
Old-timers can recall when sizable "hills" of snow existed along area highways for weeks at a time during the winter months. But those conditions gave way, for the most part, to spring, with people having cause to look forward to even nicer summer conditions.
Now, it is more common for wintry cold and winds and snow amounts, albeit less severe and persistent to those of a half-century ago, to change quickly to sizzling summer temperatures, missing the temperature evolution that spring traditionally had provided.
The Pennsylvania IFLOWS enhancements come amidst growing nationwide concern regarding weather monitoring and alert systems following fatalities and slow or mixed responses to major disasters. No way are the enhancements an over-reaction.
Pennsylvania residents will be safer with better, more comprehensive monitoring.