In a year where we experienced record-breaking forest fires, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and cold spells, one can’t help but wonder - in what ways is climate change already impacting American communities? Are the extreme weather events that the US has endured in the recent past indicative of climate change, or are the just a run of bad luck? If they are, how should we expect them to change in the future? But most importantly - how do we communicate the complexities of these answers to the public? To answer these questions and more, we’ve assembled a group of scientists who have dedicated significant effort to collaborate with other like-minded researchers and put together documents such as the National Climate Assessment and the Climate Sciences Special Report. Panelists Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is a professor and directs the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University and has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders. David Easterling is a Supervisory Physical Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA/NCEI) in Asheville, North Carolina. David received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served as an Assistant Professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, Department of Geography, Indiana University-Bloomington from 1987 to 1990. In 1990 he moved to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center as a climate scientist, He has authored or co-authored more than 90 research articles and book chapters on climate science. David was a Lead Author on the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC Special Report on Climate Extremes, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, and a Convening Lead Author for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP) 3.3 on Climate Extremes. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and has been awarded four NOAA Administrator’s Awards, and three NOAA Bronze Medals. 3:56 PM (CST) - Hi all, we’re jumping into your questions now! David Easterling is joining us on the floor of the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, and Katharine Hayhoe is joining us online. We’re excited for the discussion! 5:00 PM (CST) - We’ve just about finished answering most of people’s questions. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any more!