by First the river rose in Texas. Then the rains fell hard over North Carolina, New Mexico and Illinois.
In less than a week there were at least four 1-to-1,000-1 precipitation events-intensive processes in the United States, which are believed to have a chance of about 0.1% in a certain year.
“Each of these intensive precipitation events has a little chance of taking place in a certain year,” said Kristina Dahl, Vice President of Science at the non -profit organization Climate Central, “so it is that events that are historical and recordable in several parts of the country over the course of a week are even more alarming.”
It is the type of statistics, said several experts, which was both an eye opening and probably more often due to climate change.
At least 120 people were killed in six counties in the Hill Country region last week after heavy rain caused catastrophic fall floods. The Guadalupe river near Kerrville rose more than 20 feet during the storm in 90 minutes, washed the streets away and led to a widespread devastation.
Days later, on Sunday, tropical Sturm -Chantal parts of North Carolina water. Extensive floods were reported on the central part of the state, with some areas receiving almost 12 inch rain in just 24 hours. Local officials still confirm the total number of deaths from the floods, while the region is under another flood guard on Thursday.
In New Mexico, at least three people were killed by devastating floods on Tuesday, which swept through the remote mountain village of Ruidoso, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque.
And on the same day in Chicago, 5 inch rain fell over the Garfield Park in just 90 minutes, which caused several rescue workers on the west side of the city.
Experts said that 1 to 1,000-year floods are statistically rare, a certain number occurs every year in the United States.
“The probability is 0.1% for your location every year. Therefore, it is very unlikely that you are where you are, but in an entire country some of you will take place somewhere every year,” said Russ Schumacher, director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University and State Climatologist.
Climate change should also make this type of extreme flood events more often, he said.
It is often difficult to disguise the exact influence that climate change had on individual weather events, but scientists agree that serious storms in a warming world are more likely – together with more intensive rainfall.
“This is one of the areas in which attribution science is solid because the underlying physics is relatively simple,” said Schumacher.
A warmer atmosphere can keep more water and storms can be able to throw large amounts of rain over land. Studies have shown that the planet for every degree Fahrenheit that the planet heats up can keep the atmosphere around 3% to 4% more moisture.
“It is a mathematical certainty that the atmosphere can unload more water immediately,” said Dave Gochis, a hydrometeorologist who is the head of the predictive services at Airborne Snow Observatories, a company main source in Mammut -Seen, California, these measures and models of snow and water resources around the world.
The terrain can also be an important factor in strong precipitation events, said Gochis.
In Texas, for example, the hills and canyons of the region make it susceptible to floods. Gochis said thin ground on a basic layer of how much water can be absorbed into the ground.
In New Mexico, the village of Ruidoso was devastated by forest fires last year, in which fire scars led to increasing the drain and increasing the risks of fall floods.
The events of the past week have exposed the devastating effects of climate change on the extreme weather – and the need to protect the communities from and after these events, said Dahl by Climate Central.
The recovery efforts could take years, she said, and other consequences, including public health, can linger much longer.
“These events come and go into the news, and before you know we are in the next,” said Dahl. “It is easy to forget that it is really a healing process for the people who experience this.”
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
