Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumVermont Inundated as 1-in-1,000-Year Rainfall Event Destroys Homes, Prompts Rescues
By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
Published: July 31, 2024
Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/vermont-flooding-2024.html
Nearly eight inches of rain fell in only six hours in St. Johnsbury considered a one in a thousand year event, CNN reported.
The aftermath of flash flooding on Red Village Road in Lyndonville, Vermont on July 30 2024. Danielle Parhizkaran / The Boston Globe via Getty Images
This is devastating and was completely unexpected. I had no idea this was coming, said one of the towns residents Vanessa Allen, as reported by The Associated Press. Its just all unbelievable how bad the roads are. Were trapped. We cant go anywhere.
-snip-
Peter Banacos, a weather service operations officer, said there had been four flooding events in Vermont in the past year, caused by the mountainous terrain of the state combined with climate change. Banacos said increased rainfall and more frequently saturated soil have made it more susceptible to flooding.
-snip-
democrank
(11,235 posts)Two floods, just under three weeks apart. As usual, Vermonters will be there for one another. So many reminders to count our blessings.
A hug to all Vermonters~
Think. Again.
(17,207 posts)Jim__
(14,426 posts)Pakistan's second-largest city Lahore hit by record rain
Climate change is already causing catastrophic events. Governments need to react to try to prevent things from getting worse.
Think. Again.
(17,207 posts)Brenda
(1,310 posts)Maybe we have to get louder or more obnoxious since we roundly get ignored.
Hah, I bet people under 40 don't know what broken records means.
Thanks for posting the horrible news, TA. I've had to cut back on my climate readings, too frustrating.
OKIsItJustMe
(20,422 posts)I like to think that at least the headline is seen, if not the full posting.
Brenda
(1,310 posts)sometimes having so many "headlines" does not really help. Good articles and discussions can get buried if dozens of headlines appear at once.
Maybe we should all start cross-posting these things in GD. I mean the weather chaos is hitting every state, every country so it seems like it would be of "general" interest.
I mostly read climate related websites for this news, not the MSM, and often read stories that I would like to post here at DU but they don't get much visibility in this Group and sometimes they get outright hostility if not ignored in GD. So, I often don't bother.
OKIsItJustMe
(20,422 posts)BY PATRICK WHITTLE AND MICHAEL CASEY
Updated 3:50 PM EDT, July 31, 2024
A combination of factors leaves Vermont susceptible to these kinds of devastating floods. Heres a look at a few, along with photos and video from the latest storms.
Climate change warming the atmosphere
Extreme flooding conditions like these are often the result of random, short-term natural weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change.
With climate change, storms are forming in a warmer atmosphere, making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality. The additional warming that scientists predict is coming will only make it worse, with the Northeast U.S. among the regions vulnerable to heavier rains in the future.
A study last year in the journal Climate Change found that extreme precipitation in the Northeast will increase 52% by the end of the century. One of the studys authors, Jonathan Winter, an associate professor of geography at Dartmouth College, also took part in research that found there had been a 50% increase in extreme precipitation events from 1996 to 2014.
Think. Again.
(17,207 posts)Our total environment, the world around us, does change constantly but oh, so slowly.
The addition of massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere in only a few short decades is triggering ecological pressures that the lands, oceans, air currents, geography, etc just can not suddenly adapt to, and so, we have these massive, sudden, over-responses.
OKIsItJustMe
(20,422 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(20,422 posts)(Note, this is only through 2015.)
We were warned fifty years ago that these changes in precipitation were likely to occur.