Giving Compass' Take:
- Cristen Hemingway Jaynes reports on how climate change worsens flooding during storms like the one that recently hit New York and New Jersey.
- What can be done to make infrastructure more climate resilient as the climate crisis continues? How can climate resilience efforts be implemented equitably?
- Learn about the impact of climate flooding on Black communities.
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It’s no secret that extreme weather is becoming more frequent due to climate change, bringing wetter and more damaging storms. The storm that brought a deluge of rainfall to New Jersey and New York on Sept. 29 was exceptionally moist, drenching New York City’s JFK airport in more than 7.87 inches of rain, breaking the record set in 1948, a press release from ClimaMeter said.
Now, an experimental rapid framework study by European scientists with ClimaMeter has concluded that storms of this type are 10 to 20 percent wetter compared to last century due to climate change.
“Human-driven climate change plays a dual role, both intensifying these storms and warming the atmosphere,” said Davide Faranda, leader of ClimaMeter and a climate physics researcher at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France, as reported by The Guardian. “Deeper storms yield more intense phenomena, while a warmer atmosphere can accommodate a greater amount of rain.”
These types of storms are caused by cold air masses coming down from Canada and converging with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, the press release said.
The storm on Sept. 29 flooded New York City subways, shops and restaurants, leaving people wading through water and abandoning their vehicles on highways.
A sea lion whose enclosure overflowed found temporary freedom in the floodwaters.
Read the full article about storms and flooding by Cristen Hemingway Jaynes at EcoWatch.