• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Agriculture / UI study ties 2019 floods to greenhouse gases and climate change

UI study ties 2019 floods to greenhouse gases and climate change

March 4, 2021 By Matt Kelley

A University of Iowa report links climate change with the record flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers that waterlogged Iowa in the spring of 2019.

Gabriele Villarini, UI professor of civil and environmental engineering and lead author of the report, says weather phenomena he calls “Midwest Water Hose” events are responsible. With a water hose, he says, there’s a concentrated amount of water affecting a specific location.

“They bring a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico,” Villarini says, “and this moisture that is transported through this narrow region across the plains then becomes precipitation with all of the implications that we’ve been experiencing.”

The total precipitation in the first five months of 2019 was the highest since 1980, and the flooding brought destruction to communities and crops on Iowa’s eastern and western borders. Villarini, who is director of IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the UI, says severe flooding is becoming more frequent, especially in the past 50 to 75 years.

Gabriele Villarini (UI photo)

“Conditions that we’ve been experiencing in the recent years with more frequent flooding and alerts and warnings and impacts might become more the norm rather than the exception,” Villarini says, “unless we actively try to curb the impacts of climate change.”

He acknowledges that climate change is a “polarizing topic” and he’s concentrating on the science, not the politics.

“Greenhouse gases have led to more frequent Midwest Water Hose events,” Villarini says. “These events are responsible for more precipitation and this precipitation leads to more flooding.”

Those water hose events bring moisture from the gulf to the Midwest as heavy rainfall, which he says was responsible for more than 70% of the total precipitation across most of the central U.S. during the first half of 2019.

The UI report says rising greenhouse gas concentrations caused by human activity are bringing more heavy rainfall events tied to the Midwest Water Hose — and they’re beyond what can be attributed to natural changes to the climate.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Agriculture, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News, Weather

Featured Stories

ISU research finds health benefits for chickens watching virtual reality

Fish kill at Storm Lake linked to virus that impacts only carp

Final employee who was there at the launch of the Iowa Lottery to retire

No more USPS mail in Iowa prisons; inmates to get copies of mail

State officials warn of influx of fake prescription drugs laced with fentanyl

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Improved offense a must for Drake

UNI volleyball motivated to bounce back

Iowa’s DeJean a factor in a number of spots

Grinnell College football looks for more progress in rebuild

Iowa State’s Brock eyes expanded role

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC