extreme rainfall projected to get more severe, frequent with warming
Kingfisher, OK 8-19-07 A man wades out in Tropical Storm Erin flood waters to look for missing family members. FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program has grants and other aid available to help flood victims recover from floods. Marvin Nauman/FEMA photo

Daniel Swain in UCLA Newsroom: Extreme rainfall projected to get more severe, frequent with warming

Across the continental United States, massive, often-devastating precipitation events — the kind that climate scientists have long called “hundred-year storms” — could become three times more likely and 20% more severe by 2079, UCLA-led research projects. The paper, published in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future, finds that warming has a more profound effect on both the severity and frequency of extreme precipitation events than it does on common precipitation events. The findings have serious implications for how we prepare for the future, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said.