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A12 science
Monday 21 SepteMber 2020
Underwater and on fire: U.S. climate change magnifies extremes

posit more rain.
The week before Sally hit, a
non-tropical storm dumped
half a foot of rain on a
Washington, D.C., suburb
in just a few hours. Bigger
downpours are becoming
more common in the East,
where the summer has got-
ten 16% wetter in the last
30 years. In August 2016, a
non-tropical storm dumped
31 inches (nearly 79 cen-
timeters) of rain in parts of
Louisiana, killing dozens of
people and causing nearly
$11 billion in damage. Loui-
siana and Texas had up to
20 inches (51 centimeters)
of rain in March of 2016. In
June 2016, torrential rain
caused a $1 billion in flood
damage in West Virginia.
In the 1950s, areas east of
the Rockies averaged 87
downpours of five inches or
more a year. In the 2010s,
that had soared to 149 a
This combination of photos shows a firefighter at the North Complex Fire in Plumas National Forest, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, year, according to data
left, and a person using a flashlight on flooded streets in search of their vehicle, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, in Pensacola, Fla. from NOAA research me-
Associated Press teorologist Ken Kunkel.
By SETH BORENSTEIN abut the massive Oregon 14 already, has a high likeli- and August, according to It's simple physics. With
AP Science Writer fires while she was huddled hood of being a record. NOAA records. each degree Celsius (1.8
America's worsening cli- under a tent, dodging 4 Fifteen of the 22 billion-dol- California also is suffering degrees Fahrenheit) that
mate change problem is inches (10 centimeters) of lar droughts in the past 30 its worst fire year on re- the air warms, it holds 7%
as polarized as its politics. rain falling on the North years hit states west of the cord, with more than 5,300 more moisture that can
Some parts of the coun- Carolina mountains. Rockies, while 23 of the 28 square miles (13,760 square come down as rain. The
try have been burning this "The things I worry about billion-dollar non-hurricane kilometers) burned. That's East has warmed that
month while others were are completely different flooding events were to the more than double the area much since 1985, accord-
underwater in extreme now," Dello said. "We know east. For more than a cen- of the previous record set ing to NOAA.
weather disasters. the West has had fires and tury scientists have looked in 2018. People have been While climate change is a
The already parched West droughts. It's hot and dry. at a divide — at the 100th fleeing unprecedented factor, Seager and Williams
is getting drier and suffer- We know the East has had meridian — that splits the and deadly fires in Ore- said what's happening is
ing deadly wildfires be- hurricanes and it's typically country with dry and brown gon and Washington with more extreme than climate
cause of it, while the much more wet. But we're amp- conditions to the west and Colorado also burning this models predict and there
wetter East keeps getting ing up both of those." wet and green ones to the month. "Climate change must be other, possibly nat-
drenched in mega-rainfall In the federal government's east. Seager found that is a major factor behind ural weather phenomenon
events, some hurricane re- 2017 National Climate As- the wet-dry line has moved the increase in western also at work.

lated and others not. Cli- sessment, scientists wrote about 140 miles (225 kilo- U.S. wildfires," said A. Park Pennsylvania State Universi-
mate change is magnifying a special chapter warning meters) east — from west- Williams, a Columbia Uni- ty climate scientist Michael
both extremes, but it may of surprises due to global ern Kansas to eastern Kan- versity scientist who studies Mann said that La Nina —
not be the only factor, sev- warming from burning of sas — since 1980. fires and climate. "Since a temporary natural cool-
eral scientists told The Asso- coal, oil and natural gas. And it's getting more ex- the early 1970s, California's ing of parts of the equato-
ciated Press. And one of the first ones treme. Nearly three-quar- annual wildfire extent in- rial Pacific that changes
"The story in the West is re- mentioned was "com- ters of the West is now in creased fivefold, punctuat- weather worldwide — is
ally going to be ... these hot pound extreme events." drought, according to the ed by extremely large and partly responsible for some
dry summers getting worse "We certainly are getting U.S. Drought Monitor. Scien- destructive wildfires in 2017 of the drought and hur-
and the fire compounded extremes at the same time tists say the West is in about and 2018," a 2019 study ricane issues this summer.
by decreasing precipita- with climate change," said the 20th year of what they headed by Williams said, But that's on top of climate
tion,'' said Columbia Uni- University of Illinois climate call a "megadrought," the attributing it mostly to "dry- change, so together they
versity climate scientist scientist Donald Wuebbles, only one since Europeans ing of fuels promoted by make for "dual disasters
Richard Seager. "But in the one of the main authors. came to North America. human-induced warming." playing out in the U.S.,"
eastern part more of the Since 1980, the National Meager summer rains are During the western wildfires, Mann said.
climate change impact Oceanic and Atmospheric down 26% in the last 30 more than a foot rain fell As for where you can go to
story is going to be more in- Administration has tracked years west of the Rockies. on Alabama and Florida as escape climate disasters,
tense precipitation. We see billion-dollar disasters, ad- California's anemic sum- Hurricane Sally parked on Dello said, "I don't know
it in Sally." justing for inflation, with mer rain has dropped 41% the Gulf Coast, dropping as where you can go to outrun
North Carolina State clima- four happening in August in the past 30 years. In the much as 30 inches (76 cen- climate change anymore."
tologist Kathie Dello, a for- including the western wild- past three years, California timeters) of rain at Orange "I'm thinking Vermont," she
mer deputy state climatol- fires. NOAA applied mete- hasn't received more than Beach, Alabama. Studies said, then added Vermont
ogist in Oregon, this week orologist Adam Smith said a third of an inch (0.8 centi- say hurricanes are slowing had bad floods from 2011's
was talking with friends that this year, with at least meters) of rain in June, July down, allowing them to de- Hurricane Irene.q