Many updates this week! -Finished restoring the February weather page, found here: February Weather -Added about a dozen new before and after photos for historic buildings on the Franklinton historic building database page. -Also added another dozen or so photos to the Downtown historic building database page. The focus of both Downtown and Franklinton has been along Broad Street. -Reconstructed large sections of the Census Tract Maps page that detail population, demographics and other data for Census tracts within Franklin County. -Restored some data for the Annual Weather Records page. -Added a Contact Page for any inquiries about the city or specific information. -A few other odds and ends updates.
If it seems like the last few years have been particularly wet, you’d be right. Columbus, other Ohio cities and many areas in the Midwest have been seeing record rainfall of late. Yesterday alone, June 19th, Columbus had a daily record 2.65″ of rain, flooding many streets across Franklin County, including I-71 in at least 2 places. Is it indicative of a fluke pattern or a local result of climate change? Let’s look at the numbers and trends more closely.
First of all, let’s look at the 20 wettest years on record through June 19th. 1. 1882: 32.50″ 2. 1890: 30.12″ 3. 2019: 27.08″ 4. 1964: 25.78″ 5. 2011: 25.68″ 6. 1893: 25.50″ 7. 2004: 25.49″ 8. 1996: 24.94″ 9. 1949: 24.52″ 10. 1945: 24.49″ 11. 1913: 24.45″ 12. 1883: 24.18″ 13. 2018: 23.98″ 14. 2008: 23.62″ 15. 1950: 23.60″ 16. 1990: 23.56″ 17. 1981: 23.49″ 18. 1898: 22.94″ 19. 1927: 22.92″ 20. 1937: 22.69″
So far, 2019 has had the 3rd highest rain total to date since 1879.
4 years this decade have been among the top 20 wettest years since 1879. Only the 1880’s can match that record, though both the 2000s and 2010s have been wetter, as shown below.
Ironically, few individual months in recent years have featured record precipitation. In the last 10 years, only 1 month- July 2017- appears in the top 25 wettest months. It’s just been more of a constant wet pattern, where most months now have above to well-above normal precipitation. While climate change can’t account for individual events or specific record rainfalls, the patterns are obvious enough to show that the climate in Columbus and in many other parts of the country is changing over time. This means that we should come to expect more of this in the years to come.
Columbus Development Maps 2010-2013 Development 2014-2019 Development 2020-2025 Development All these pages are basically just map versions of the development pages. However, the maps are organized by year and include before and after photos of the development sites.
Columbus Fantasy Transit Map 2019 Transit Map The transit map for the Columbus Metro Area is just one example of many existing fantasy maps for Central Ohio. This one includes routes for light rail, BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) and interurban rail to neighboring counties.
The Redevelopment of Westland Mall Mall Site Westland Mall and the larger surrounding area is in desperate need of a revamp. Recently, a proposal to make the site into a “Weston” development in the potential style of Easton has emerged. I made this map several years ago as a basic blueprint for how the entire area could be rebuilt into a much more urban, walkable, vibrant corridor.
Columbus Area Bike Lanes, Multi-use Paths and Sidewalk Infrastructure Bike Infrastructure This map attempts to include all the existing bike and multi-use infrastructure in the area, along with general pedestrian infrastructure. The map will is not fully updated yet through 2019.
Downtown Columbus Parking Infrastructure Parking Lots and Garages This map, last updated in 2015, documents all existing parking garages and surfaces lots throughout Downtown.
This weekly update includes the following: -The Completed Development page has received most of the attention. Most projects finished since 2010 have been restored, and I am now working on adding projects for years going all the way back to the 19th Century. -All other development pages saw some limited updates. –Rail Transportation History continues to expand.
Coming soon: -I have been putting together some data for several updates to the demographics pages, particularly related to immigration and crime data. -A restoration of the Census Tract Maps page is in the works, though not this coming week. -Monthly weather stats for another month should arrive this week. -At least one new non-update post is coming this week. -There will be a focus this week in particular to restore the Under Construction and Proposed Development pages.
The weekly update for June 3-6 continues to show progress on the site’s restoration. This included the following: -The Completed Development page received extensive additions for the years 2015-2019. -The January Weather records page was fully restored and includes 2019 data. -The Columbus Tornado History page got a large addition. -A few new graphs were added to the Columbus City Demographics page. -Columbus Transportation History received multiple entries. -Odds and ends were added to several other pages across the site.
