Wettest 12 Months in U.S. History

[malaise]

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Wettest-12-Months-US-History?cm_ven=cat6-widget
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The 12 months ending in April 2019 were the wettest year-long period in U.S. records going back to 1895, according to the monthly U.S. climate summary issued Wednesday by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Averaged across the contiguous U.S., the total of 36.20” made the period from May 2018 to April 2019 the first year-long span ever to top 36”. The old record for any 12-month period was 35.78”, from April 2015 to March 2016.

Given the fierce drought-related impacts of the 2010s—including multiple deadly wildfire disasters from Tennessee to California—it may seem a bit counterintuitive that the nation has actually been getting wetter overall. Across the contiguous U.S., average yearly precipitation has risen by about 2” over the past century, from around 29” to just over 31” (see Figure 1). For the entire nation, including Alaska and Hawaii, precipitation increased by about 4% in the period from 1901 to 2015, according to the U.S. National Assessment.

Of course, the averages above obscure a lot of regional and temporal variability, and the devil of drought impact lies in those details. U.S. climate is famously variable from year to year, decade to decade, and region to region (see Figure 2). As human-produced greenhouse gases boost temperatures over the long haul, both globally and nationally, the most intense precipitation episodes are getting even heavier, while the intense droughts that do occur in places like California are increasingly “hot” droughts, where the heat pulls moisture from vegetation and the landscape more effectively. We may see similar tendencies toward hot droughts in other parts of the U.S. as the climate continues to warm. The upshot is that drought impacts can intensify in a warming world even in places where the long-term precipitation average, across both wet and dry periods, is unchanged or even rising slightly.

A 2018 study found that California’s wet season is likely to get compressed into a shorter window, likely leading to precipitation “whiplash” between wet winters and hot, dry summers.

[JonLP24]

1. I saw a map of future climate change

I wish I knew where the tweet was it was awhile ago but the East is flooded, the southwest where I am is very dry, and wildfires in the Northwest. It was a very frightening map.

[malaise]

3. It's a mess

for sure

[Kurt V.]

2. It's rained so much here, yesterday i had to mow grass while it was raining.

[Siwsan]

4. We've had so much rain, I still can't even walk across my back lot without sinking

I mowed the front half, last weekend and that was a real nightmare. I thought maybe I could just use the push mower on the back, but it's still to boggy to support my weight without my foot prints filling with muddy water.

I'm not sure how I'll take care of the back half, when I finally can get a mower back there, because the grass will be so tall.

[greymattermom]

5. I just put in a new drainage system in my front yard.

My grass was turning into moss. (Atlanta area).