Weather gets weird as record rainfall follows record drought.
Texas struggled through its driest year in history in 2011.
The Mississippi River rose to all-time-high flood levels in 2011.
The seesaw from one record to its opposite also has problematic implications for water management, storm preparedness and even national security.
“That gets a little scary because history’s here to provide context.” All of this is playing out as the Trump administration announced the country’s withdrawal from the Paris treaty, aimed at trying to slow climate change.
“Hydrological extremes — floods and droughts — are the most dangerous aspects of global warming because they lead to food and water shortages and that can lead to armed conflict,” said Kerry Emanuel, an atmospheric science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
The U.S. Department of Defense counts floods, droughts and high temperatures as climate-related security risks, according to a July 2015 report.
From 2014 to 2016, world records were set for the hottest year, with each 12-month period breaking the mark set by its predecessor.
In April, it was 21 times larger, with individual sites that set records, the National Weather Service said.
“In a warm world you swing out a little further,” Anderson said.