Transcript:
It may seem counterintuitive, but some areas are suffering from both droughts and extreme rain.
For example, in June and July, catastrophic floods devastated Texas Hill Country – a region that’s been experiencing drought for years.
Lisonbee: “So we had, back to back, this extreme and prolonged drought that was then hit by these extreme and very intense floods.”
Joel Lisonbee is with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
He says a few torrential storms do not necessarily end a drought. After the storms in Texas …
Lisonbee: “The grass greened up, the pastures improved, the soils became saturated again. But the long-term drought didn’t leave. In fact, central Texas is still seeing impacts of a long-term drought in their reservoir levels and aquifer levels.”
As the climate warms, Texas and many other parts of the U.S. are expected to experience harsher droughts and heavier rain.
Lisonbee: “These prolonged dry periods are becoming longer and drier. And when the rain comes, it comes in much larger, shorter bursts.”
So people will increasingly see the devastation caused by flooding and drought, side by side.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
