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“Record-breaking rainfall that caused flash flooding in the St. Louis area Tuesday morning, leaving cars trapped on streets, causing road closures and at least one death, is not just a freak occurrence: It’s a manifestation of human-caused climate change. By 7 a.m. Central time, rainfall since midnight averaged between 6 and 10 inches around the region.
THAT KIND OF SATURATION HAS BEEN MADE MORE LIKELY BECAUSE WARMER AIR NOLDS MORE WATER AND CAUSES MORE WATER TO EVAPORATE, and it’s happening more frequently as a result.
“In recent years, a larger percentage of precipitation has come in the form of intense single-day events,” the Environmental Protection Agency said. “Nine of the top 10 years for extreme one-day precipitation events have occurred since 1996. The prevalence of extreme single-day precipitation events remained fairly steady between 1910 and the 1980s, but has risen substantially since then.”
So while the Southwest suffers through a 20-year megadrought — the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years — it has also experienced a 10% increase in the heaviest precipitation events between 1956 and 2016, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Other regions are seeing more dramatic storms and experiencing more frequent and severe flooding. The Midwest has 42% more heavy precipitation events per year than it did 60 years ago, and the Northeast is seeing 55% more.
This is yet another example of how CLIMATE change affects WEATHER. The two are clearly tied together.
THAT KIND OF SATURATION HAS BEEN MADE MORE LIKELY BECAUSE WARMER AIR NOLDS MORE WATER AND CAUSES MORE WATER TO EVAPORATE, and it’s happening more frequently as a result.
“In recent years, a larger percentage of precipitation has come in the form of intense single-day events,” the Environmental Protection Agency said. “Nine of the top 10 years for extreme one-day precipitation events have occurred since 1996. The prevalence of extreme single-day precipitation events remained fairly steady between 1910 and the 1980s, but has risen substantially since then.”
So while the Southwest suffers through a 20-year megadrought — the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years — it has also experienced a 10% increase in the heaviest precipitation events between 1956 and 2016, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Other regions are seeing more dramatic storms and experiencing more frequent and severe flooding. The Midwest has 42% more heavy precipitation events per year than it did 60 years ago, and the Northeast is seeing 55% more.
St. Louis has been hit by record flash flooding. Here's how it's related to climate change.
Record-breaking rainfall that caused flash flooding in the St. Louis area Tuesday morning, leaving cars trapped on streets, causing road closures and at least one death, is not just a freak occurrence: It’s a manifestation of human-caused climate change.
news.yahoo.com
This is yet another example of how CLIMATE change affects WEATHER. The two are clearly tied together.