Where Climate Change Will Bring Extreme Rainfall to the U.S.

The multiday storms that unleashed 6.9 trillion gallons of rain upon Louisiana this August wound up creating the worst U.S. natural disaster since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. But while the catastrophic flooding might’ve seemed rare and shocking, such paralyzing deluges could become common by the end of the century if emissions continue at their current pace.

Now we know what parts of the country are likely to get slammed by such extreme rainfall, thanks to scientists at Boulder’s National Center for Atmospheric Research. Using computer simulations so comprehensive they took a year to run, researchers found that by 2100 many places around the U.S.’s Gulf and Southwest could see up to a 400 percent increase in the number of ultradrenching summer storms. Mexico is also facing a big uptick in extreme rains, and the risk is jacked up on Atlantic Coast and around the Rockies: