Is El Niño making storms and flash floods in the Southwest worse?
A chaotic climate phenomenon known as El Niño is intensifying heavy rains and flash floods in the Southwest United States, according to experts. This natural warming cycle, which occurs irregularly every couple of years, has been particularly extreme this time around. As the Pacific Ocean waters sizzle and leak moisture into the air, the phenomenon fuels passing storms, making heavy rains more likely and intense across the Southern U.S. The latest iteration of El Niño is being described as a "super duper" event, making it more likely for extreme precipitation to occur in the Southwest.
Flash floods have prompted evacuations in northern New Mexico and central Arizona, while a Colorado ski town braced for its main river to rise to catastrophic levels. Over 20 trillion gallons of water have fallen on the Four Corners states and Nevada in the past two weeks, with experts attributing this to the extreme El Niño adding more moisture to the air and shifting atmospheric winds toward the Southwest.
Brief written by urgent.news from Winnipeg Free Press's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
