A massive storm stopped across central and southern strips of the US on Wednesday, unleashing extreme floods and huge tornadoes Arkansas to Michigan. The condition is expected to deteriorate on Friday as the soil becomes saturated and water piles up. National Weather Service is a warning “A life-threatening, catastrophic, potentially historic flash flood event,” along with the risks of very large hail and more twisters. 8 people So far it has been confirmed to be dead 33 million Monitoring flood clocks in 11 states.
Scientists need to do the right research to hit exactly how much climate change contributes to these storms, but what is known as belonging research can generally say that planetary warming can exacerbate such events. It’s not necessarily the case that climate change has created this storm. It may have happened independent of all the excess carbon that humanity pumped into the atmosphere, but there are some clear trends that exacerbate rainfall.
“In a world without fossil fuel burning, this event happens once in a lifetime. It’s kind of what the National Weather Service is saying,” says Mark Alessi, a climate science fellow with the Massachusetts-based coalition of related scientists. “However, the burning of fossil fuels increases heat trapped emissions and there are warming planets, making this event more frequent.”
The amount of rain is changing as the earth sweats. When the sun evaporates water from the surface of the Earth, its moisture rises into the atmosphere, condenses, falling like rain. but Greenhouse gas The planet sweats more accordingly as it traps heat there. In other words, it balances energy.
The warm atmosphere also makes you thirst. With every degree of warming, the air can hold 6-7% of water. This means that the humidity increases with rain. The slow-moving storm is predicted to be abandoned this weekend 15 inches Rainfall in some areas. “The atmosphere in this case is the sponge, which is bigger, and the sponge holds more water and can be transported more inland from the ocean,” Alessi said. “That could be tied to this event here.”
The problematic body of water here is the Gulf of Mexico. Tornadoes and heavy rains are typical during this time of year as warm water sends moisture to the southern and central US. And at this point, the Gulf of Mexico is very warm. “There’s more fuel because of these rain-generating storms, so there’s more fuel,” Alessi said. (However, the impact of climate change on US tornadoes Not so clear. )
So not only does Mexico’s warm bay produce more moisture, but the atmosphere can also absorb more moisture than before human-induced climate change. Certainly, the US government’s My climate assessment It warns that precipitation is already becoming more extreme across the country, as well as the economic damage caused by the resulting flood. It is expected to get worse with every additional warming.
The problem is that American cities are not built to withstand this new atmosphere reality. Urban planners designed them for the different climates of last year, with ditches and sewers that foam rainwater and rainwater as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. Furthermore, due to the high amount of extreme rainfall, the infrastructure cannot keep up, resulting in water buildup and flooding. And if a storm continues for days, like it is currently shedding tears in Arkansas and Kentucky, the soil will saturate until it can no longer retain water, further aggravating the flood. That was the case Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee rescue teams. Scramble to save people They are trapped in a rapid increase in water levels.
Scientists need to select data to understand how much rain the storm will be due to the sponge effect and warming of the Gulf of Mexico. However, the overall trends are abundantly clear. As the planet warms, it is not always dry, but wet.
