OK, RI, TN, AR - More Freak Floods, New Records Just As Predicted By Bush Admin. Study In 2007 - AFP

[hatrack]

A rash of flash floods has struck the US during this spring: Rhode Island, Tennessee, Arkansas, and most recently Oklahoma have all faced devastating floods that have resulted in the loss of property and in some cases tragic deaths. While flash floods have occurred throughout US history, the number of big floods this year appears abnormal at best, but not unexpected by researchers. Climatologists warned last year that an increase in floods and severe storms is very probable as the world warms.

A US report commissioned by the Bush Administration in 2007 and released in 2009 warned that the United States would see greater incidences of severe weather and heavier rainfall. The report, which looked at the US regionally, predicted that more precipitation in winter and spring in the Midwest would lead to increased flooding. In addition, the report predicted increases in flooding and severe weather for the Southeast. The report stated that "the amount of rain falling in the heaviest downpours has increased approximately 20 percent on average in the past century, and this trend is very likely to continue, with the largest increases in the wettest places."

EDIT

In a recent interview with climate blogger Joe Romm, Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said that both the media and scientists were downplaying the well-established link between climate change and these floods. "I find it systematically tends to get underplayed and it often gets underplayed by my fellow scientists," Trenberth says. "Because one of the opening statements, which I’m sure you’ve probably heard is 'Well you can’t attribute a single event to climate change.' But there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4 percent extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future."

For his part, Romm has recently suggested that the media—which has almost completely ignored the scientific connection between climate change and these floods—start referring to weather patterns clearly linked by data to climate change as 'global-warming type events'.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0616-hance_freakfloods.html

[joeybee12]

1. The truth is staring the deniers in their faces...

...what fools.

[reggie the dog]

2. Here in Draguignan we got a foot of rain in 20 hours

It is the worst flood since 1878 yes 1878. The ensuing mudslides killed 25. The west side of town was hit with a 10 foot wave of water that came out of the hills. My friends cars got washed away, my chest high reefer is gone because the river moved over 20 feet, it no longer flows in the same place. Cars floated away. The meteorologists said that a low pressure system developed over the unusually warm Mediterranean sea, helped by unusually hot winds coming out of algeria and tunisia.....

[Nihil]

4. I was reading about that this morning.

Keep safe!

[pscot]

3. That's some biblical shit, man.

:hippie: