Extreme weather news and discussion

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

UK's first 2025 hosepipe ban declared in Yorkshire

3 hours ago

A hosepipe ban affecting more than five million people will come into effect from Friday - the first to be declared in the UK this year.

Yorkshire Water said the region had experienced its driest and warmest spring on record with only 15cm of rainfall between February and June - less than half of what would be expected in an average year.

Yorkshire is the first part of the UK to face restrictions on water usage amid an extended spell of dry weather nationwide.

Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said the restrictions "are intended to make sure we have enough supply for the essential needs of people across the region this year and next as well as making sure we are able to protect our local environment".

The ban applies to customers across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire. It prohibits the use of a hosepipe for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool. Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £3,000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2073zy4k9o

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

Trump DHS Chief Noem Rages at CNN ‘Lies’ On Fox News Even as Her Agency Confirms FEMA Delay In Texas Flood Disaster
By Tommy Christopher
July 10, 2025

Introduction:

(Mediaite) Trump Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lashed out at CNN in a Fox News interview, accusing them of “lies” even as DHS confirmed the reported FEMA delay she was complaining about.

The tragic flash floods in Texas over the 4th of July weekend have claimed at least 120 lives, including campers and counselors who were attending summer camp at Camp Mystic. The aftermath of the disaster has included criticism of the Trump administration over cuts to weather-related agencies and questions about the state and local response.

CNN dropped a bombshell report Wednesday, blaming Noem’s cost-cutting policies for delaying FEMA’s response until Monday — a timeline that DHS confirmed despite trashing CNN in a statement that was intended as a rebuttal.

On Thursday’s edition of Fox & Friends, Noem nevertheless assailed CNN over their reporting, laughing when guest host Griff Jenkins asked her about it

Read more here: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/tr ... disaster

caltrek: Nobody has been more guilty of spreading fake news and lies than Donald Trump. Yet Kristi Noem goes on to complain about the loss of trust in this country. Look in the frigging mirror, for gosh sakes, to understand the cause.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

FEMA’s Flood Maps Often Miss Dangerous Flash Flood Risks, Leaving Homeowners Unprepared
By Jeremy R. Porter
July 4, 2025

Introduction:

(The Conversation ) The deadly flash flooding in Texas on July 4, 2025, and destructive flash floods a week later in states including New Mexico, Vermont and Iowa are raising questions about the nation’s flood maps and their ability to ensure that communities and homeowners can prepare for rising risks.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps are intended to be the nation’s primary tool for identifying flood risks. Originally developed in the 1970s to support the National Flood Insurance Program, these maps, known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs, are used to determine where flood insurance is required for federally backed mortgages, to inform local building codes and land-use decisions, and to guide flood plain management strategies.

In theory, the maps enable homeowners, businesses and local officials to understand their flood risk and take appropriate steps to prepare and mitigate potential losses.

But while FEMA has improved the accuracy and accessibility of the maps over time with better data, digital tools and community input, the maps still don’t capture everything – including the changing climate. There are areas of the country that flood, some regularly, that don’t show up on the maps as at risk.

I study flood-risk mapping as a university-based researcher and at First Street, an organization created to quantify and communicate climate risk. In a 2023 assessment using newly modeled flood zones with climate-adjusted precipitation records, we found that more than twice as many properties across the country were at risk of a 100-year flood than the FEMA maps identified.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/femas-floo ... d-260990

[caltrek]

The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come
By Abrahm Lustgarten
July 9, 2025

Introduction:

(ProPublica) On July 4, the broken remnants of a powerful tropical storm spun off the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico so heavy with moisture that it seemed to stagger under its load. Then, colliding with another soggy system sliding north off the Pacific, the storm wobbled and its clouds tipped, waterboarding south central Texas with an extraordinary 20 inches of rain. In the predawn blackness, the Guadalupe River, which drains from the Hill Country, rose by more than 26 vertical feet in just 45 minutes, jumping its banks and hurtling downstream, killing 109 people, including at least 27 children at a summer camp located inside a federally designated floodway.

Over the days and weeks to come there will be tireless — and warranted — analysis of who is to blame for this heart-wrenching loss. Should Kerr County, where most of the deaths occurred, have installed warning sirens along that stretch of the waterway, and why were children allowed to sleep in an area prone to high-velocity flash flooding? Why were urgent updates apparently only conveyed by cellphone and online in a rural area with limited connectivity? Did the National Weather Service, enduring steep budget cuts under the current administration, adequately forecast this storm?

Those questions are critical. But so is a far larger concern: The rapid onset of disruptive climate change — driven by the burning of oil, gasoline and coal — is making disasters like this one more common, more deadly and far more costly to Americans, even as the federal government is running away from the policies and research that might begin to address it.

President Lyndon B. Johnson was briefed in 1965 that a climate crisis was being caused by burning fossil fuels and was warned that it would create the conditions for intensifying storms and extreme events, and this country — including 10 more presidents — has debated how to respond to that warning ever since.

Read more here: https://www.propublica.org/people/abrahm-lustgarten

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]