What the historic South Carolina floods can — and can't — tell us about ... - Washington Post

In 2013, after some controversy, South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources released a report on risks the state could face due to climate change. One of those risks? “A predicted result of climate change is the increase in intense storm events causing greater water inputs in shorter periods of time, affecting flood frequency and duration,” the report noted.

Now, with an unfathomable amount of flooding hitting the state, it’s easy to wonder if this is precisely the sort of event that South Carolina’s scientists had in mind. After all, as our very own Capital Weather Gang has noted, this isn’t merely a 1 in 1,000 year event for rainfall totals — in some locations the amount of rainfall “blows NOAA’s 1,000-year events scale out of the water.” And some have already suggested a “probable” climate change connection.

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