The Polar Vortex, April Showers, and Over $20 Billion in Flood Damage
The Growing Cost of Climate Change
The Making of a Nightmare
In late January of 2019, the jet stream lost control of the polar vortex, bringing previously unseen temperatures and precipitation over most of North America. As warmer air disrupted the frigid arctic air, this massive wave of heavy wind and subzero temperatures leeched south and brought rivers and streams to a standstill while snow proceeded to pile up for months. According to the National Climate Report (a product of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information), precipitation in the Midwest was 31% above normal, with regional snowfall for the month reaching 4 feet in some areas.
February of that year was the second wettest in 125 years of precipitation records. Regional precipitation anomalies for the month averaged at a 48% increase from the norm. Most of the region averaged around 109% normal in March, but parts of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri had precipitation values between 150% and 200% normal.
As all of this excess precipitation collected, the frozen rivers and ground could neither contain nor transport it until temperatures rose. Unfortunately, as the melting occurred, there was not enough capacity to transport the water through ground absorption or through the rivers’ normal output levels.
Cascading Waters
Starting in March, eight states in the region were flooded as the Missouri River exceeded capacity. But as the region was entering the spring season, precipitation did not stop. April continued to blanket the region with above average precipitation. The National Climate Report notes that during this time, most of the region had persistent ground snow of 10 inches, with some areas storing as much as 40 inches. Data shows that the temperature continued to rise in the region at a near normal pace after the vortex subsided.
May marked another month in a year of regional precipitation above normal. June had variations ranging from 50% normal to 200% normal precipitation values for states in the region. The Arkansas River flooded, affecting three states directly south of the eight originally affected in March.
Again in July, precipitation was at record levels above normal. At this point, the Mississippi River could no longer hold and the entire region flooded. A total of 14 states were affected by the flood from the Mississippi, including three southernmost states from the March flood, all three of the states from the June flood, and the surrounding states to the east and south.
What Actually Happened
If you’ve been following the pattern here, the states that were flooded in March were upstream of the states that were flooded in June, which were upstream of the states that were flooded in July. This can be attributed to the nature of hydrogeology and river flow. Situations upstream or downstream can affect any particular point in a river.
The unexpected and incessant precipitation for the region that was scattered throughout the states was only part of the cause of the massive flooding that occurred in sequence, and as the processes that drive climate change are ongoing, we should expect to see these abnormally high levels of precipitation and flooding in the future. The severe cold that caused the rivers to freeze over caused ice dams to form, blocking upriver water from making its way down in a reasonable amount. As the ice dams broke, huge quantities of water were freed to make their way downstream. The scattered precipitation in the region also facilitated the melting of the stored snow, and continued to overtax the already saturated ground while the rivers were already at capacity.
The floods from March, June, and July caused $10.9B, $3.1B, and $6.3B in damage respectively, for a total of $20.3 billion. Events like this occur ever more frequently. In 2020 alone, the US had 22 billion-dollar disasters calculated at around $95.0 billion in damages — more than twice the total of the damages in 2019. Since this started being tracked in 1980, the United States has had 285 total billion-dollar disasters costing taxpayers a whopping $1.875 trillion.
As we roll into another spring — after another polar vortex froze and crippled swaths of the country — we’re talking about a federal plan for revamping our nation’s infrastructure and switching to greener energies, but is $2.25 trillion over eight years really enough?
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