Torrential August rains attributed to climate change

Karin van der Wiel.

Torrential rains drenched south Louisiana in mid-August, with parts of the state receiving nearly 30 inches of rain from August 10 to the 17.

The state capital, Baton Rouge, suffered through nearly a foot of rain on a single day, August 12, and nearly as much the day after.

Historic flooding of the state claimed at least 13 lives and damaged more than 60,000 homes.

Rescue teams saved 30,000 people from the floodwaters and relocated displaced residents to drier grounds.

Among the evacuees were Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards and his family, who sought shelter when rainwater flooded the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge.

The federal government declared a dozen parishes major disaster areas. The Red Cross deemed the flooding in Louisiana the worst natural disaster in the United States since Superstorm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast in 2012.

The extreme nature of this event left many asking whether climate change may have played a role.

Read Climate Central story based on a report by a research associate from the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Karin van der Wiel - “Climate change increased chances of record rains in Louisiana by at least 40 percent.”