Ruidoso, New Mexico and flash flood
Digest more
Texas, flooding
Digest more
With the recent deadly flash floods in Texas and New Mexico, it's important to remember that monsoon season has begun for the southwestern part of our country and flooding is one of the hazards that comes along with it.
There are reports some cloud seeding occurred a few days before the Texas flash flood. But it’s important to understand that cloud seeding has a relatively short-term effect in that a certain cloud is seeded and perhaps turns into one individual rain cloud or even a thunderstorm. The increased rainfall would not last for days.
When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites known to be in the floodplain.
Back-to-back flooding disasters in recent years — in Texas, New Mexico and Kentucky, among many others — have showed that preparing for flash flooding is a new necessity as the planet warms.
Major I-95 cities -- Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia -- could be impacted as heavy downpours could bring 2-3 inches of rainfall per hour over already saturated soils, which could easily cause flash flooding.
Forecasters say some thunderstorm cells have the potential to dump as much as 2 to 3 inches of rain in one hour, posing a risk of rapid flooding.