This was a 1,000 year Flood/drought”

How many times have we heard the media reporting that a particular flood is a “once in a 1,000 year flood” or a drought being a “once in 500 year drought”?

Often.

I have always wondered why having yearly back-to-back “worst flood in 1,000 years” doesn’t trigger the obvious V-8 moment of the climate crisis. If there are annual historical floods or droughts, might that not mean that the climate has changed? Duh!

The U.S. is the only country that keeps such data; it is not a global phenomenon. Nevertheless, the incidence of floods or droughts being called “a once in 500 years” or “a once in 1,000 year event” has increased since the year 2,000.

It has always seemed to me that when there are consecutive years with a “once in 500 years/ once in 1,000 years” extreme weather event, something is not right.

I live in the Chicagoland media market, so I have been exposed to all the coverage of NW Indiana floods from a couple of weeks back. The residents have now been without electricity for two weeks after this “once in a 1,000-year flood,” with thunderstorms and tornadoes passing through.

There will be many more “once in 500/1,000 year extreme weather events” in the next 18 months due to the Super El Nǐno that I wrote about here:

It is About to Get Hotter

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Jul 3

I have written a couple of times about the possible silver lining of Trump’s War with Iran. I wrote this and a bit later, this column. I have also written about how stupid/wrong side of history the Trump Administration is on the climate crisis. If you are going to start a war that will cut off the global oil supplies and increase dramatically the price …

At the same time the U.S. is fighting a war that determines the price of oil, the planet will enter an 18-month period that will break a number of weather and climate records.

At least there are some logical responses to Trump’s war with Iran, as I wrote about here:

Sooner rather than later, humanity must take fundamental action(s) to face the completely unprecedented climate crisis. Until then, we will continue to have “once in 500/1,000 year climate events’ every year.

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