Whole Foods Market on Lamar being cleared of debris, silt and ruined groceries after the Memorial Day flood in May 1981.
It was almost like the Memorial Day flood of 1981 all over again. Torrential rain on already saturated ground over the long three-day weekend brought on floods across the southwest, from
Central Texas to Oklahoma:
The rain comes at the end of a long period of drought in Texas. Just four years ago, nearly all of the state was in extreme drought. Then-Gov. Rick Perry told Texans to “pray for rain.” He renewed the state of emergency in 2013. But after record-breaking rainfall this spring, no portion of Texas or Oklahoma was in extreme drought as of Thursday, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Going from one extreme to another is a hallmark of climate change. Scientists predict more droughts in the coming decades, as well as more intense rainstorms. In the midwest, the number of storms that drop more than three inches of rain have increased by 50 percent, according to an analysis from the Rocky Mountain Institute. Texas and Oklahoma both face intensifying drought and flooding, although politicians in both states have denied climate change.
No one weather event can be directly attributed to climate change. It's more like rolling dice, and lately we've been rolling a lot of snake-eyes.