Unmet need for public education on increases in rainfall intensity due to climate change

23 Aug 2007

Excerpt from Aug 21 comment by a person from Rochester:

... "Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the land here in SE MN (I'm in Rochester) could tell what was going to happen when the rain kept coming. And, accordingly, most people escaped with their lives." ...

Midwesterners haven't seen the intensity and volume of recent rain before and they didn't know the rain would "keep coming". They didn't realize that climate change has been increasing the intensity and volume of heavy rains. National Weather Service supervisors have not allowed their staffs to research and comment to the public on climate change hydrologic changes as a result. My removal by NWS in 2005 from the North Central River Forecast Center in Chanhassen for my research and talk about climate change affecting flooding (rainfall intensities and timing of snowmelt runoff) is evidence of that irresponsible "policy" by NOAA NWS from 1993-2005.