Some weather experts say the recent flooding that devastated Yellowstone National Park underscores an urgent need to update how the government issues forecasts as extreme weather becomes more frequent
As a cleanup expected to last months grinds on, climate experts and meteorologists say the gap between the destruction and what was forecast underscores a troublesome aspect of climate change: Models used to predict storm impacts do not always keep up with increasingly devastating rainstorms, hurricanes, heat waves and other events.
The deadly June 2021 heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest offered another example. Warmer weather had been expected, but not temperatures of up to 116 degrees that toppled previous records andThe surprise Yellowstone floods prompted a nighttime scramble to close off roads and bridges getting swept away by the water, plus rushed evacuations that missed some people. No one died, somewhat miraculously, as more than 400 homes were damaged or destroyed.
“The road looks totally fine and then it’s like an 80-foot drop right into the river," Sholly said."No way if someone was driving in the rain at night that they would have seen that and could have stopped.” In a scramble to save keepsakes, Smith slipped on the wet kitchen floor and fell, shattering a bone in her arm. She recalled holding back tears as she trudged through floodwaters with her partner and 15-year-old granddaughter to reach their pickup truck and drive to safety.
Those changes include less snowfall in mid-winter and more spring precipitation — setting the stage for flash floods when rains fall on the snow, said Montana State University climate scientist Cathy Whitlock. “We are literally re-writing our weather history book,” said University of Oklahoma Meteorology Professor Jason Furtado.
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