is getting far wetter on average, with some areas - including parts of the Mississippi River Basin - now receiving up to 8 more inches of rain each year than 50 years ago, based on data from the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I n the wake of July’s floods, the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk - a journalism partnership that includes more than 14 newsrooms, including Wisconsin Watch - asked climate data nonprofit Climate Central to analyze 50 years of rainfall patterns.įindings showed that the eastern half of the U.S. “This problem is not going to get better. This last flood sure proves it,” said Bob Criss, a Washington University emeritus professor who studies regional flooding. The shifting trends and escalating flood risk raises urgent questions about society’s readiness to cope with the change, as spiraling and once-unheard-of rainfall extremes become more frequent. Louis and Eastern Kentucky helped showcase the risks wrought by a climate that is growing hotter and wetter - and more prone to dumping massive rains and flash flooding on communities whose creeks, streams and drainage systems are not equipped to handle such volatile waters. It was yet another example that rain isn’t falling the way that it used to, with both the magnitude and intensity of extreme rain events increasing throughout recent decades, across a large part of the country. Louis’ single-day record by more than two inches, for instance. The rainfall totals obliterated previous records in each area by a margin that was difficult for some experts to fathom - topping St. ![]() Related The Debate Over How Best to Fight Global Warming
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