Thread: The Insane Rainstorms We've Seen This Week Are What Climate Change Looks Like

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The Insane Rainstorms We've Seen This Week Are What Climate Change Looks Like

PHILIP BUMP

A flooded house. (ASSOCIATED PRESS / THE WIRE)

Massive flooding on the Florida panhandle. More rain in New York's Central Park on Wednesday than it saw during Hurricane Sandy. Big storms with lots of rain is one of the things that we can expect more of as the world gets warmer.

Environment America

In 2012, Environment America released a report documenting the increase in "extreme precipitation" events between 1948 and 2011. Over that time period, as you can see in the map, the number of extreme rain- and snowfalls nearly doubled in the Northeast. (What constitutes "extreme"?

Events "expected to occur no more than once per year on average at a particular location based on the historical record.") Climate Central, writing about this week's storms, created a slightly different map, showing the percentage of increase in heavy rain events by region of the country.
"It probably wouldn't be correct to say that climate change caused" the floods in Florida, Slate's climate expert Eric Holhaus wrote on Wednesday, "but it surely made them more likely." Why? Because "as the atmosphere warms, it can hold more water vapor."



Possible future unusual precipitation events at various concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (IPCC)In its most recent report, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed (in its typically reserved language) the link between precipitation and human-caused climate change.

Anthropogenic influences have contributed to observed increases in atmospheric moisture content in the atmosphere (medium confidence), to global-scale changes in precipitation patterns over land (medium confidence), to intensification of heavy precipitation over land regions where data are sufficient (medium confidence) …

Extreme precipitation events over most of the mid-latitude land masses and over wet tropical regions will very likely become more intense and more frequent by the end of this century, as global mean surface temperature increases.

"Mid-latitude land masses" is where you live. Or, if it isn't, if you're visiting our humble website from Kenya or Alaska, here's how you can expect precipitation to change in your area, depending on how much more carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere.



What's worse is that the increased precipitation will be paired with higher sea levels. As Arctic ice melts and as ocean temperatures increase, sea levels will continue to rise. Which will mean more images like the one below. Is this rain flooding? Sea flooding? Storm surge? Does it matter?

If you live out West, by the way, you may have noticed that your fate will likely be different. Precipitation in already-dry parts of the country will likely drop— although there will still likely be more precipitation in rarer storms. Meaning a higher likelihood of drought in a warming world. But that would never happen, right?

A woman in Alabama. (AP)

http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014...s-like/361526/

1. Wednesday Was New York City's 10th Rainiest Day Ever
   
   Slate Magazine (blog)-2 hours ago
   That's more rain in a single calendar day than fell in either Hurricane ... Adjusting for local climate, heavy rains in the Northeast this week were on ... to climate change could cause Hurricane Sandy-level flooding in New Jersey ...
   
2. 
3. Philly.com
   Mayor Nutter: 7th worst rainstorm in Philly's history
   
   Philadelphia Business Journal-6 hours ago
   Flooding along the Schuylkill River reached levels higher than two previous ... Hurricane Irene and higher than Superstorm Sandy," Nutter said. ... Up at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, nearly 5 inches of rainfall was recorded.
   
4. Rainstorm causes flash floods, mudslide in New York City area
   
   New York Daily News-by Bill Hutchinson-3 hours ago
   More than 24 hours of heavy rain triggered flash floods throughout the city ... a mudslide in Yonkers that delayed the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson line. ... ruined for second time, since she had just replaced them all after Sandy. ... In New Jersey, flooding slowed traffic on the Garden State Parkway inEast ...
   
5. Storm reaks havoc in Middlesex County
   
   MyCentralJersey.com-5 hours ago
   Abandoned cars along Union Hill Road in Monroe after heavy rains forced water up and over the roadway that ran above a creek in Monroe ...
   
6. Heavy rains pushing river over its banks
   
   Fredericksburg.com-20 hours ago
   As of Wednesday evening, more than 4 inches of rain had fallen in Fredericksburg, according to ... Parts of Culpeper County had numerousflooded roads, with water coming up onto the ... Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, which caused widespread damage along the Northeastcoast, dropped 6 inches of ...
   

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• U.S. Gulf Coast hit by flooding after 24 hours non-stop rain
  
  By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - The worst floods in decades deluged roads and engulfed homes and cars in Florida's Panhandle and coastal Alabama on Wednesday, the latest mayhem created by a tornado-packing storm system that has killed at least 34 people this week. Florida…
  
  Reuters
• Flood warnings in place after record rains soak eastern U.S.
  
  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Flood warnings were posted across the eastern United States on Thursday after a powerful storm system unleashed record amounts of rain from New England to Florida, and as the death toll rose from ferocious storms earlier in the week in the U.S. South. The…
  
  Reuters

Extreme Rainfall Events Like Pensacola, Florida Storm On The Rise

Huffington Post-14 hours ago
The same widespread storm system that set tornadoes spinning across ... Radar-estimated rainfall totals (measured in inches) on the Florida ...