Is 2013 The Year Of The Flood?

I swear, every time I turn on the news this year, there's a report of some bad flood someplace.

This morning, it's Missouri and surrounding states that are under the gun.  Many areas of the U.S. East Coast had nasty floods this summer. The Canadian cities of Calgary and Toronto has epic floods this year.

A flash flood swamps Browns Trace Road in Jericho, Vermont
on July 4, 2013. Is global warming making floods more likely?  

Bad floods have lately hit Pakistan and northwestern China. Here in Vermont, we had some severe flash flooding in late May.

Then in the last half of June and the first half of July, repeated flash floods trashed roads and property in various areas of the Green Mountain State.  Part of the state were just declared a disaster area.

Is all this flooding associated with global warming? Maybe.

First, I have to issue my usual caveat. One individual weather event in one isolated place on the globe isn't necessarily proof of global warming. Weather extremes have always hit Planet Earth, and alway will.

However, taken as a whole, this seeming uptick in record floods might well be a sign of global climate change.

Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air. So if the air is warmer, it follows the warmer air is often wetter. If a storm happens to interact with that warmer, wetter air, the rain could come down harder than it otherwise would.  So you get your flooding.

Some climate scientist also say the unusual melting of Arctic ice is affecting the jet stream. It gets stuck in place more often than it once did. The jet stream is featuring more unusual big dips to the south and big pushes to the north.

The odd jet stream patterns is making storms repeatedly rake over the same areas. So if you get several weeks of heavy rain storms, of course you'll get a flood.

I'd caution, though, that although scientists agree that human induced climate change is happening, they're still arguing about what effect that has on the jet stream.

If the scientists are right, we get to look forward to more nasty floods, along with the occasional drought and heat waves, if global warming continues apace.

I'm sure the insurance companies are thrilled by this prospect. 

Just as long as we never have to live that awful movie from a few years ago, "Waterworld"