{ "150764-21910144": { "datetime_modified":"20260824T095846", "datetime_start":"20260908T150000", "datetime_end":"20260908T163000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-09-08", "date_end":"2026-09-08", "time_start":"15:00:00", "time_end":"16:30:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Water@Michigan Coffee Talk: Changing Michigan Winters", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Water@Michigan Coffee Talk: Changing Michigan Winters", "event_subtitle":"", "event_type":"Lecture \/ Discussion", "event_type_id":"13", "description":"Talk Description: Climate change is not coming. It is here. We have seen it starkly in northern Michigan over the last three years.\n\nIn late March 2025, a 60-hour freezing rain event coated far northern Michigan in up to an inch of ice, collapsing the power grid, cutting running water and communication to rural communities, and leaving thousands without heat as temperatures then plunged. Ice up to an inch thick built on the Mackinac Bridge, the most significant icing in its history, forcing closures as slabs the size of garage doors fell from the cables. In June 2026, four to seven inches of rain fell within hours across the Lower Peninsula, triggering a state of emergency in three counties. Weeks later, wildfire smoke drove July trip cancellations, contributing to more than $6.6 billion in economic damages statewide, the highest of any state.\nThis panel focuses on the changing winter behind events like these. Northern Michigan is not simply losing snow. It is losing winter as a season we can count on. Warmer air, declining lake ice, shorter snow cover, and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles are restructuring winter into something more episodic. A December snowstorm, a January thaw, rain, ice, then another Arctic outbreak.\n\nThe consequences extend across the systems the region relies on. Thinning snowpack can expose soils and roots to freezing, shift wildlife distributions, and reduce plant productivity at large spatial scales. Winter recreation, forestry, and tourism all depend on cold and snow persisting long enough to plan around. For people, longer tick activity windows can increase Lyme disease risk, while the loss of reliable winter changes the traditions that connect families and communities to this place.\n\nOur panelists will explore these ecological, economic, and human dimensions together, because the future of Michigan winters is not one story. It is many changes, unfolding at once.\n\nModerator: Aim\u00e9e Classen, Professor, LSA and Director of the U-M Biological Station\n\nPanelists: Ayumi Fujisake-Manome, Associate Director & Associate Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research; and Jacob Napieralski, Professor of Geology; Director, Environmental Interpretative Center; U-M Dearborn\n\nAbout Coffee Talks: Coffee Talks provide a monthly opportunity for U-M faculty, staff, and students interested in water, and water-interested people in southeast Michigan to connect with colleagues, learn about pressing and\/or emerging water-related issues, and meet new partners.\n\nThis academic year, we are excited to Envision Resilient Great Lakes Futures\u2014examining the future opportunities, challenges, and innovations shaping the region's water resources, communities, and ecosystems.\n\nCoffee Talks are in-person convenings designed to build connections as part of the U-M Water Center's mission and programs; we are not recording sessions at this time.\n\nYou can register here: https:\/\/graham.umich.edu\/wateratmichigan\/coffee-talks", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"150764-21910144@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/150764", "building_id":"1000165", "building_name":"Weiser Hall", "campus_maps_id":"47", "room":"1010", "location_name":"Weiser Hall", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Biology","Climate Change","Discussion","Ice","Panel","Water","Winters"], "website":"https:\/\/graham.umich.edu\/wateratmichigan\/coffee-talks", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"School for Environment and Sustainability", "group_id":"3454", "website":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UMichSEAS\/" } ], "image_url":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_large_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_large_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "group_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/group_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "group_thumb_square":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/group_thumb_square\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "group_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/group_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "group_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/group_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_large_crop":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_large_crop\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_list":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_list\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_list_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_grid":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_grid_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_grid_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_feature_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/resolve\/event_feature_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png", "event_feature_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150764_original-1.png" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21910144 } , "150447-21909458": { "datetime_modified":"20260818T140922", "datetime_start":"20261005T153000", "datetime_end":"20261005T170000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-10-05", "date_end":"2026-10-05", "time_start":"15:30:00", "time_end":"17:00:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Water@Michigan Coffee Talk: Future Proofing the Great Lakes Compact and Beyond", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Water@Michigan Coffee Talk: Future Proofing the Great Lakes Compact and Beyond", "event_subtitle":"", "event_type":"Lecture \/ Discussion", "event_type_id":"13", "description":"This Coffee Talk will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore the future of the Great Lakes Compact and the broader governance systems that support transboundary freshwater management in an era of accelerating climate, ecological, and social change. As pressures on water resources intensify\u2014from shifting precipitation patterns and lake level variability to growing demands from communities, agriculture, industry, and ecosystems\u2014the resilience of existing governance frameworks is increasingly being tested.\n\nThe conversation will examine how institutions such as the Great Lakes Compact, along with binational and regional organizations, can be \u201cfuture-proofed\u201d to remain adaptive, equitable, and scientifically informed under deep uncertainty. Together, the panel will reflect on what it means to design water governance systems that are not only robust in the present, but flexible enough to endure\u2014and evolve with\u2014the uncertainties of the future Great Lakes region and beyond. \n\nYou can register for the Coffee Talk on the Water@Michigan Coffee Talks webpage: https:\/\/graham.umich.edu\/wateratmichigan\/coffee-talks\n\nAbout the speakers: \nModerator: Andrew Gronewold, Associate Professor SEAS and PI for the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters\nPanelists: David Naftzger, Executive Director, Great Lakes Governors and Premiers; Peter Johnson, Deputy Director, Great Lakes Governors and Premiers; Marc Gaden, Adjunct Professor, SEAS and Executive Secretary, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and Vianey Rueda, PhD Candidate, SEAS", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"150447-21909458@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/150447", "building_id":"1000191", "building_name":"Michigan League", "campus_maps_id":"108", "room":"Hussey Room", "location_name":"Michigan League", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Civil and Environmental Engineering","Climate Change","Complex Systems","Engineering","environment","Global And Transnational","Governance","Great Lakes","Water"], "website":"https:\/\/graham.umich.edu\/wateratmichigan\/coffee-talks", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"School for Environment and Sustainability", "group_id":"3454", "website":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UMichSEAS\/" } ], "image_url":"", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"", "event_large":"", "event_large_2x":"", "event_large_lightbox":"", "group_thumb":"", "group_thumb_square":"", "group_large":"", "group_large_lightbox":"", "event_large_crop":"", "event_list":"", "event_list_2x":"", "event_grid":"", "event_grid_2x":"", "event_feature_large":"", "event_feature_thumb":"" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21909458 } }