In 2008 the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) was founded to study the current and likely future impact of climate change on the five boroughs of New York City and the surrounding area. Today the NPCC released a new report which projects the implications of climate change between now and 2100, based on current models.

The hope is that by better understanding what is coming, the city will be able to better prepare for or prevent potential danger to the people, environment, infrastructure and economy of the city.

“The NPCC is a prototype for how federal government scientists and municipal policymakers can work together. This collaboration will help ensure that climate science developed for the New York metropolitan region informs and draws from the best available information, positioning residents and planners to confront expected future changes in the most effective way possible,” said Rosenzweig, who also is affiliated with the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, New York in a statement.

The full report of the NPCC is available from the New York Annals of Science. However, in summary, the report states that the mean annual temperature in New York has increased by 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. Those temperatures are expected to increase by 4.1 to 5.7 degrees by the 2050s and 5.3 to 8.8 degrees by the 2080s, compared to the 1980s. The number of heat waves in the city is also expected to increase, from an average of 2 per year to an average of 6 per year by the 2080s.

Annual precipitation has also been on the rise, by an average total of 8 inches since 1900. This increase is expected to continue. Relative to the 1980s it is expected to increase by 4 to 11 percent by the 2050s and 5 to 13 percent by the 2080s.

According to the researchers, the sea level rise in New York has been almost twice the global rate. The city has seen a 1.1 foot rise since 1900. The NPCC projects an additional rise from 11 to 21 inches by the 2050s, 18 to 39 inches by the 2080s and 22 to inches to a worst case scenario of six feet by 2100. All of these projections are relative to the 2000-2004 base period.

All of this is in keeping with the 2014 Global Change report which says that heat waves, heavy downpours, and sea level rise will pose challenges to many aspects of life in the Northeast. “Infrastructure, agricultural, fisheries and ecosystems will be increasingly compromised,” according to the website.

The findings are also in agreement with a December, 2014 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which says that “the NOAA team is projecting that Boston; New York City; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Norfolk, Virginia; and Wilmington, North Carolina; all along the Mid-Atlantic coast, will soon make, or are already being forced to make, decisions on how to mitigate these nuisance floods earlier than planned.”

The NPCC brings together some of the leading Earth scientists in the metropolitan New York area. It is co-chaired by Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York.

The GISS climate model was used in the projections along with NASA Landsat 7 data and NASA’s Climate Adaptation Science Investigator (CASI) program.

“Climate change research isn’t just something for the future. It’s affecting how key policy decisions are being made now. NASA is proud to work with New York City and other intergovernmental entities to provide world-class science,” said Rosenzweig.