Flash torrents and climate policies

Tropical Storm Barry was still developing in the Gulf of Mexico on the morning of June 29. This is the second storm of the season, so it arrives unusually early. Historically, there were storms with names like Bonnie or Bob that didn’t form until mid-July. Later that day, Barry landed near the city of Tampico on Mexico’s east coast and weakened tropical depression. Its short life span makes it a weather-related joke, a pair of meteorologists write. But, it turns out, Barry is not done yet. Its remnants continue to walk northward, carrying the water from the bay. This moisture helped to alleviate rainfall in and around Kerr County, Texas in the early morning of July 4, killing at least one hundred and twenty people.

When Barry traveled to Texas, the White House was murdering his own destruction. The Trump administration’s contempt for its science is no secret, and on June 30 recommended cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from projects aimed at improving climate and weather forecasts. Among the numerous research centers, the government hopes to close the Atlantic Oceanography and Meteorological Laboratory, the Geophysical Dynamics Laboratory, the National Severe Storm Laboratory, and the collaborative institute for severe and high-impact weather research and operation. The last two of them are based on Oklahoma. All of this is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce. “I can’t stress enough the disastrous nature of closing the National Severe Storm Laboratory and Ciwro – for all of us,” Stephen Nehrenz, a meteorologist at Tulsa’s CBS branch, posted on X after the budget proposal was released.

This week, as searches for people missing from the flood continued, many commentators raised questions about the National Meteorological Service shortage (which is also NOAA– Contributed to this tragedy. Nearly 600 people have left the agency since President Trump took office, many because they were fired, while others because they retired early. In the latter group is Paul Yura, a warning from the New Braunfels Meteorologist in the New Braunfels Meteorologist, which handles the Kerr County forecast. In April, Yura announced he was leaving the weather blog of KXAN, an NBC branch of Austin, where a story aired, noting that he “has extensive experience in understanding local weather patterns while ensuring timely warnings are spread to the public in multiple ways.” Many meteorologists have defended the NWS’ new Braunfels office since the flooding, saying that given the nature of the storm, its predictions are expected. Is there a veteran who handles the warning Coördination, or anyone who has the position of Yura still not filled in will make a difference – at least at this point it is impossible to say.

It can be said that the kind of flooding that happens in Texas will be more common in a warm world. The hotter the air, the more moisture it is. This is the secret to the downpour, and in fact, the trend of stronger rainfall has been recorded throughout the United States. According to the fifth national climate assessment published in 2023, rainfall has increased by 20% in areas including Texas over the past few decades, nearly half of the Midwest, and 60% in the Northeast. “Climate change forces us to re-examine the concept of rare events,” the report said. A study released this week by a group of European researchers concluded that floods in Kerr County were flooded. “Natural variability alone cannot explain the precipitation changes associated with this very special meteorological condition,” the researchers wrote.

In a sane country, such messages will prompt two replies. First, measures will be taken to limit the dangers of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Second, more resources will be used to prepare for extreme weather. Unfortunately, this is not the country we live in now. The federal government is openly trying to maximize fossil fuel consumption and, therefore, emissions. On Monday, Trump signed another executive order aimed at further recruiting an executive order that further plagues solar and wind industries that have been shackled by previous executive orders and are under the provisions of the so-called large-scale beauty bill approved by Congress earlier this month. On Tuesday, as death toll climbed, the Environmental Protection Agency came to a hearing on a proposal to abolish emissions from coal-fired power plants. As one commentator said, Trump and Congressional Republicans ended Forbes“any idea of a true energy transition happening in the United States.”

Meanwhile, the White House is actively undermining the country’s ability to predict and respond to climate-related disasters. In April, the government rejected nearly four hundred scientists working on volunteer-based projects to draft the next climate assessment report, which should expire in 2027 under law. Late last month, it closed the U.S. Global Change Research Project website, on which the fifth assessment report and the former were once available. It cuts out grants from climate scientists and gets kicked NASA Climate researchers left the office and hired climate science deniers to fill key government positions. Trump said he wanted to eliminate the federal emergency management agency. The government has been withdrawing from the idea lately, but the report shows a cost-cutting measure FEMA Initiated by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the agency’s response in Texas was postponed. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security told Washington that “the old process was replaced because they failed in a real emergency.” postal.

So far, Trump’s attack on climate science (and many other aspects of reality) has found eager collaborators in Congress. But NOAAthe House and Senate still have a chance to reject the president’s plan. Perhaps, after the Texas tragedy, they will find the effort to do so. Because, since the death toll along the Guadalupe River is already very clear, the neglected problem has not disappeared. ♦