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The Conversation
The Conversation
Environment
Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, UMass Lowell

How climate change intensifies the water cycle, fueling extreme rainfall and flooding – the Northeast deluge was just the latest

People were trapped in stores as floodwater swept through Highland Falls, N.Y., on July 9, 2023. AP Photo/John Minchillo

A powerful storm system that hit the U.S. Northeast on July 9 and 10, 2023, dumped close to 10 inches of rain on New York’s Lower Hudson Valley in less than a day and sent mountain rivers spilling over their banks and into towns across Vermont, causing widespread flash flooding. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said he hadn’t seen rainfall like it since Hurricane Irene devastated the region in 2011.

Extreme water disasters like this have disrupted lives in countries around the world in the past few years, from the Alps and Western Europe to Pakistan, India and Australia, along with several U.S. states in 2022 and 2023.

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