Climate change made Louisiana's catastrophic floods much more likely

Human-derived rising temperatures increased the risk of the natural disaster by at least 40%, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study found Climate change has radically increased the likelihood of the sort of torrential downpours that triggered ruinous floods in southern Louisiana last month, federal government scientists have said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said increasing global temperatures driven by human activity made the Louisiana floods, considered the worst natural disaster in the US since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, at least 40% more likely.

Nearly 7tn gallons of water was dumped on Louisiana in a week from 8 August, killing 13 people and flooding 60,000 properties, including the governor’s mansion. The repair bill is likely to be close to $9bn.

Louisiana left stunned by damage from '1,000-year' flood: 'It just kept coming'

 

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Scientists from Noaa and World Weather Attribution ran a statistical analysis of past rainfall and used two climate models to determine how heavy downpours have changed along the US gulf coast in the past 100 years. The experiment altered factors such as greenhouse gas levels to see how they correlate to extreme rainfall events.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/08/climate-change-louisiana-floods-increased-risk