weather
“The line connecting climate change and frequent heavy rainfall events in the United States was already well established, and this study further intensifies it.”
A pedestrian uses an umbrella to protect herself from early morning rain on State Street in Boston, Massachusetts on October 5, 2022.
As torrential rain and winds from Massachusetts and forecasters warn of the potential for flooding, power outages and downed trees, new research confirms something many have long suspected: Regular rainstorms are getting more and more intense in the eastern United States.
The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters this week, links the findings to the climate crisis. The authors, researchers at Northwestern University, analyzed rainfall data from nearly 1,700 weather stations across the United States. They found that in the eastern US stretch of the Rocky Mountains, rainstorms dropped about 5 percent more water on average in the years 1991 to 2020 than they did from 1951 to 1980. The increase was stronger in The authors say New England, where storms have increased precipitation by 6 percent.
The researchers have repeatedly confirmed predictions of climate models with wetter and more powerful extreme rain events such as hurricanes, caused by warmer air, which can carry more moisture. The authors of the new study wanted to see if regular rain events also get wetter.
Finish the story at BostonGlobe.com.
Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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