Climate change in Mississippi

[1] The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports: "In the coming decades, Mississippi will become warmer, and both floods and droughts may be more severe.

But soils have become drier, annual rainfall has increased, more rain arrives in heavy downpours, and sea level is rising about one inch every seven years.

If the oceans and atmosphere continue to warm, sea level along the Mississippi coast is likely to rise between twenty inches and four feet in the next century.

Rising sea level submerges wetlands and dry land, erodes beaches, and exacerbates coastal flooding.

Although warming oceans provide these storms with more potential energy, scientists are not sure whether the recent intensification reflects a long-term trend.

Many cities, roads, railways, ports, airports, and oil and gas facilities along the Gulf Coast are vulnerable to the combined impacts of storms and sea level rise.

Oak, hickory, and white pine trees are most common in the northern part of the state, except along the Mississippi River delta.