Climate change has come to New Jersey, according to Environment New Jersey, a statewide environmental advocacy group.

The organization released a report Thursday that attributes this year’s extreme weather to global warming.

“Certainly, we have a problem on our hands,” said Matt Elliott, a representative from Environment New Jersey.

“We need to do everything we can to cut carbon pollution today.”

On both a local and national level, 2012 has been a year of dramatic weather events.

This summer’s temperatures have set record highs across the country, and in New Jersey, those extreme temperatures have been matched by extreme storms.

Last weekend, thousands of people in Freehold were left without power after a storm caused extensive damage to utilities in the area.

And the super-derecho storm that swept South Jersey on June 29 caused damage that public works departments are still cleaning up weeks later.

The storm, which devastated areas of Cumberland and Salem counties, claimed two lives at Parvin State Park, left thousands without power for more than a week and forced the closure of the park, canceling weddings, vacations and a nationally ranked triathlon.

“We were impacted bad in the Pittsgrove Township area,” said Jeff Ridgway, director of Public Works in Salem County.

“We had the guys work probably 20 to 30 hours on Saturday and Sunday after the storm. We’ve been spending the last couple weeks just cleaning up some of the areas.”

Salem County eventually sent crews to Cumberland to help deal with the overwhelming task of cleaning up after the storm.

Environment New Jersey’s report, which analyzes weather records from government-run weather stations dating as far back as 1948, states that storms occur 33 percent more frequently in New Jersey now than they did 60 years ago. Futhermore, the report says, those storms have come to produce 22 percent more precipitation than they did in decades past.

Experts agree that this year New Jersey has seen more than its fair share of extreme weather events. Last summer brought severe storms as well.

In August 2011, a single storm dumped 11 inches of water on Salem and Cumberland counties, causing millions in damage.

But a meteorologist from the National Weather Service who confirmed that the weather of 2012 has been unusually dramatic was reluctant to say whether these storms were indicative of global warming.

Tony Broccoli, a professor of environmental science at Rutgers University, said that erratic and extreme weather events are characteristic of global warming.

“There is good evidence that some types of extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rain events have become more common as global temperatures have risen,” he said.

“In other words, climate change has increased the chances of having a heat wave or a heavy rain event.”

This assertion is in keeping with Environment New Jersey’s findings.

Broccoli added, however, that he does not think enough time has passed to determine whether a pattern proving that this weather is a result of climate change exists.

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