Extreme Weather Flooding the Midwest Looks a Lot Like Climate Change

Devastating storms still roiling much of the American Midwest have dumped record levels of rain over the past week and caused flash flooding that has killed at least 10 people, inundated towns and highways, and forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. Parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas and Louisiana received 10 to 15 inches of rain in the past seven days, according to the National Weather Service, resulting in record crests of numerous rivers across the central United States.

A flooded neighborhood in Arnold, Missouri on May 4, 2017.
 Heavy downpours from slow-moving storms over the
 past week sent rivers over their banks, flooding towns and
shutting down roads and highways in several states.

Extreme storms like these have become more common as global temperatures have risen and the oceans have warmed. Some have the clear fingerprints of man-made climate change.

"Of course there is a climate change connection, because the oceans and sea surface temperatures are higher now because of climate change, and in general that adds 5 to 10 percent to the precipitation," Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said. "There have been many so-called 500-year floods along the Mississippi about every five to 10 years since 1993." 

   

Read the Inside Climate News story - “Extreme Weather Flooding the Midwest Looks a Lot Like Climate Change.”