Climate change caused the catastrophic floods that tore through Central Texas over the last few days, killing at least 27 people, including nine children, and turning calm rivers into violent torrents, according to the media. At Camp Mystic in Kerr County, the Guadalupe River surged from about three feet to nearly 29 feet in just 90 minutes, sweeping away cabins, vehicles, and people with little or no warning. Climate change caused a warmer atmosphere, which holds more moisture, and unleashed it in increasingly intense bursts. Volumes of precipitation were extreme. They had less than a 0.1% chance of occurring in any given year, according to the New York Times. Texas climatologists warned that the frequency and severity of such events have already increased and could intensify by another 10 percent by 2036. In East Texas, “the number of days per year with at least two inches of rain or snow has increased by 20 percent since 1900,” noted the Times.
