A “once-in-a-century” flood washed through much of the eastern and southeastern United States in spring 2019 as the Mississippi River overflowed for 145 days straight, breaking the river’s 1927 record for its longest flood. But in 50 years’ time, this disaster might not be nearly as rare. According to a new analysis of the impacts of climate change, flood waters in this wet part of the U.S. won’t just run deeper; they’ll wreak havoc for more days at a time. Flooding damage along the Meramec River near Eureka, Missouri, in December 2015. Photo credit: U.S. Geological Survey Moved by the tragedy of 2019’s historic Mississippi River and Missouri River floods, civil engineers Hanbeen Kim and Gabriele Villarini at Princeton University in New Jersey decided to predict how long floods will last toward the end of the century. “We looked at duration to understand how long floods might keep people out of their homes—if they have to find long-term alternatives, or even rebuild their houses,” Villarini said. In an initial paper published in Nature Communications in January, the researchers projected that floods throughout the U.S. will become more extreme. Rising amounts of rainfall will create floods with more water surging through affected areas at any one time, they concluded. However, the pair also wanted to explore the impacts on people and residences by predicting whether those floods will become more persistent, too. Their latest results, published in npj Natural Hazards in August, showed that as precipitation levels and carbon emissions increase,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post Eastern U.S. floods could persist longer toward the end of the century first appeared on EnviroLink Network.