We beat with a record number of fall flood warnings

This summer was particularly characterized by intensive rainfall and floods. States such as Texas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Illinois, New York and New Jersey have been a major flood events in the past few weeks. At the beginning of this month, the country was affected by at least four 1-to-1,000th anniversary events in less than a week.

In June, fall floods killed at least nine people in West Virginia after about 2.5 to 4 inch rain had fallen over parts of the Ohio district in just 30 minutes.

At the beginning of July, at least 120 people were killed in the Hill Country region of central Texas after the Guadalupe River near Kerrville rose more than 20 minutes.

Days later, at least three people were killed by devastating floods in the remote village of Ruidoso in New Mexico.

And at the beginning of this week, more than 2 inch rain fell over Central Park in New York City in an hour and, according to New York City, marked the second highest rainfall, which was recorded in the Big Apple.

The flood of the latest floods of falls partly owe the fact that the summer months tend to be some of the stormest of the year, said Russ Schumacher, director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University and the state climaticologist.

“In June to October you can get really strong rainfall in parts of the country,” he said, adding that the Atlantic Hurricane season runs from 1 June to November 30th, the rain can remove along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast.

However, studies have shown that climate change is expected to make stormy and more intensive storms, which increases the risk of strong rainfall and floods.

“A warmer atmosphere contains more water vapor that can then be rained,” said Schumacher. “The evidence of this is quite strong.”

Part of the reason why there are more warnings than ever before is that scientists are now able to recognize and pursue weather systems in more detail.

Radar systems and weather models have improved significantly over the course of 40 years, which contributes to the number of warnings in extreme weather events, said Amir Aghakouchak, director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and remote sensing at the University of California, Irvine.

“The system that was implemented in the 80s is not the same as the system we have now,” he said. “We have many, many other radars and we have many different data sources. Of course, you expect more warnings just because our systems are getting better and better.”

These warnings are of essential importance for the rescue of life, but they are also crucial to protect infrastructures such as dams, dikes or drainage systems that are susceptible to flood events, said Aghakouchak.

“It's all a memory that these events can be important disasters,” he said. “The Texas flood was a great disaster, so we always have to be prepared.”