Up to 50 percent of homes in Houston's Harris County would not have been flooded by Hurricane Harvey if it weren't for climate change, according to new research. Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in 2017, caused massive flooding in Houston.
The lead author of the study said that climate change is increasing the severity of extreme weather events. Researchers are able to determine the extent of damage from an event such as Hurricane Harvey.
About 50,000 homes are damaged and billions of dollars are saved by not having residences impacted.
The study quantified the contribution of climate change to the suffering of people who live there.
Patterns of racial and economic disparity have been found in the research into the effects of climate change.
Part of the reason low-income neighborhoods flooded has to do with the historical development of Houston along its waterways. There is a clear story about where these neighborhoods are located.
The impacts of climate change are being studied.
Computational models are used to estimate how climate change will affect extreme weather events such as hurricanes. The difference between the estimates and what actually happened can be seen by scientists.
"This is the first end-to-end impact study of a specific weather event following on our previous studies showing a significant increase in Harvey's precipitation and the resulting flooding increase because of climate change."
Although popular discussion tends to center around climate change forecasts for the future, the study shows that climate change is impacting life now.
The costs of climate change are real and significant. Climate change can cause your lawn to get soaked and your house to get flooded, but three to five more inches of rain can make a difference.
More information: Social inequalities in climate change-attributed impacts of Hurricane Harvey, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31056-2 Journal information: Nature Communications
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