Once-in-a-century drought followed by once-in-a-century flooding — Hell and High Water <2> — that’s something larger and larger swaths of this country will need to get used to, especially if their Congressional reps keep opposing action on climate change.
Douglas county Georgia was “hit by 21 inches of rain in a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, knocking out the drinking water supply to most residents, and forcing others to boil their water,” the NYT reports <3>. “As much as 15 to 20 inches of rain pounded counties around Atlanta for more than 72 hours.”
On Tuesday, Reuters reported “a state climatologist said this was the worst
in 100 years in some parts of Atlanta.” Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed <4> the records set. Here are just a few:
Among the flooding records, a nearly 90-year-old mark was broken Monday when the Chattahoochee River reached 29.61 feet near Whitesburg, west of Palmetto. The old record was 29.11 feet, set on Dec. 11, 1919.
Downstream, the Chattahoochee on Tuesday beat another nine-decade record near Franklin, reaching 29.97 feet. The new record bested a Dec. 15, 1919 mark.
The largest jumps came at Utoy Creek, near Atlanta, where the water level surged to 27.54 feet, nearly 11 feet over the May 2003 record of 16.86 feet, and Sweetwater Creek at Austell, where Tuesday’s crest of 30.17 feet topped the previous record of 21.81 feet set in 2005.
I have called this type of rapid deluge, “global warming type” record rainfall <5>, since it is one of the most basic predictions of climate science — and its an impact that has already been documented to have started (see below).
http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/23/global-warming-georgia-record-flooding-drought/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
