Texas Is Drowning

Summer 2007 will be remembered in Texas for the water. Weeks of torrential rains. Flooded streams. Washed out roads. Helicopter rescues. And yesterday, a flood-stranded Amtrak train with 170 passengers aboard.

Rescue workers trying to reach the stranded train unable to reach it for hours due to washed out access roads. The question is, are the Texas floods a harbinger of climate change due to global warming? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "Texas's climate has always been variable and somewhat extreme--and climate change may intensify this historical pattern".

On the UCS website, the Texas Projected Climate page predicts the following: "More frequent intense rainfall events are expected, with longer dry periods in between. In a document that echoes this position, the EPA's climate change analysis of Texas asserts that increases in summer precipitation could be up by 10-30%, and "the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase."

Scientists assert that no one weather system can be conclusively pinned to global warming-induced climate change. Increased awareness of global warming and the issues around climate change is drawing more attention to weather anomalies worldwide.

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