Heavy Rains, Flooding Hammer Drought-Stricken Southwest
Heavy rains set off significant flooding from Arizona to Texas that killed at least one person in Mesquite on Monday in a wild weather whiplash for a region that has seen drought and extreme heat this summer. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is making both droughts and extreme precipitation events worse and more frequent. Rain totals considered a 1-in-1,000 year storm soaked the area. An estimated 10 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period in parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, turning streets into rivers, submerging cars, and breaking rainfall records across the region. Hundreds of people were rescued from submerged cars. The Dallas-Fort Worth airport also recorded a record 3.01 inches in one hour. Floodwaters also overtopped a century-old levee outside Duncan, Arizona and one hiker is missing after being swept away by floodwaters in Zion National Park. (Texas Flooding: Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, AP, CBS, Texas Public Radio, NBC, WKBN, Dallas Morning News, Washington Post $, Austin-American Statesman, ABC, Weather Channel, Reuters, CNN; Whiplash: CNN, Axios; Rescues: CBS; Photos and video: WFAA, Dallas Morning News; Arizona: AP; Hiker: AP, CBS; Commentary: Dallas Morning News, Editorial Board)
(Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase, Flooding)
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