“Get heavier”: climate change storms to drop more rain

The intense storms system that was flooded Central and southeastern United States With heavy rains and intense winds for several days, it fits a wider pattern in recent decades than increased rains across the eastern half of the United States.

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration appears to 1991 to 2020 that The eastern part of the country received more rainsOn average, over those years of what they were during the twentieth century. At the same time, the rains decreased across the West.

The sharp gap is compatible with east and west with predictions of climate scientists, who expect wet places to become more moisture, and dry areas become more dry, with the world’s temperature rising.

While the individual storm cannot be linked to climate change without further analysis, warming air can lead to heavier rain. This is because warm air has the ability to keep moisture more than cooler air, providing conditions with an average rainfall in general, and the possibility of storms that come more intense.

Global temperatures are increasing year after year, driven by burning fossil fuels, which pumps greenhouse gases aimed at the planet to the atmosphere. The past ten years have been the 10 most important for nearly 200 years of saving records, according to a recent report from World Meteorological Organization.

“When we have very heavy rains, the trends indicate these heavy events that were increasingly heavier,” said Diana, a associate professor of meteorology and air science at Illinois Urbana Champin.

Gerald Protzg, the climate scientist in Kentucky and the director of the Kentucky Climate Center, said that severe floods can be an indirect effect of warm air and increased moisture. When conditions stop the storm system, large amounts of rain can fall in the same area, which increases the risk of floods.

This is what happened with this storm stopping in the region in recent days. “I would like to say that it happened once in the generation, based on the amounts and the covered area,” said Protzg.

Mark Jarvis, the meteorologist at the National Weather Services Office in Luisville, Kentucky, described the storm as two parts. Hurricanes, strong winds and cold were brought in the front end, before stopping and dropping historical amounts of rain. He said that West Kentucky, which witnessed some of the most severe effects in the storm, “in the eye of the bull.”

He said that while heavy rains and floods are common in the Ohio Valley in late winter and early spring, a system for dropping a lot of rain like this is “very rare”. “This is something that you usually see with hurricanes and tropical systems,” he said..

While the destructive storms have always occurred, the possibility that the climate will change is affected by it Weather trends observedThe lady said and then said.

She said that even in the western half of the United States, which has become more drought in general, she said the rains that come to decline in more extreme levels.

She described it as “very eye”, and added, “To believe that we are more especially an enjoyable feeling.”