What unusual events happened to cause all the flooding in the midwest this year?

Question

Yuou people who say 'this is not an unusual year" are out to lunch.

Answer 1

the reason we don't want to warm the globe is because it changes weather. Weather is the interaction of water vapor, air pressure and temperature.

Due to the fact it couldn't be seen, we thought we weren't generating heat on the surface of the planet. Thermografix Consulting Corporation did several years of advanced temperature research showing solar interaction with buildings. Solar radiation and the same UV that burns our skin is causing buildings to generate extreme heat the building isn't designed or insulated for.

We are reacting to the heat symptoms with more emissions, electrical waste and we are not addressing the generated heat from all development adding to lower air pressure changing weather.

Go to http://www/thermoguy.com/globalwarming-h...

Answer 2

I think that is just the weather doing what is does best and that it is the rain. Also I think that it could have been the green house effact or possble it could have been Globalwarming.

Answer 3

Well,

if global warming is actually happening then

the ice is melting then being evaporated into the sky.

then it rains all over us.

causing flooding.

Answer 4

This is not unusual. It doesn't happen every year but it is nothing new to those of us that live in the Midwest.

Why do you think they built the levees? To help keep back the yearly flood waters.

Answer 5

The cows farted....

Answer 6

What unusual events? The Midwest has flooded before. If the Midwest had never flooded ever before,it would be unusual.

Answer 7

It's not unusual for flood plains to occasionally flood.

Answer 8

It rained a lot.................... and the politicians stole the money that was allocated to build higher levees.

Answer 9

It rained quite a bit.

I'm not sure why this question is in the global warming section though.  

This Spring has been cooler than average in the continental US, and cooler than most of the last ten years globally.

Thus, if global warming - whatever the cause - caused increased rainfall in the central US, then this should have happened in a warm year.

My guess is that both the cooling we've seen over the last 12-15 months as well as the heavy rains have more to do with the prolonged La Nina.

But the key word is "guess."

Answer 10

the flooding of the natural flood plains can hardly be called unusual. the 1993 floods were worse than this years floods & the 1951 floods were 10 times worse.

it used to flood regularly enough (every 3 to 5 years) that people didnt build in flood plains or if they did they just expected to live on the second floor for a few weeks every few years.

check the history of mississippi & missouri river towns, floods were much more common 50 to 100 years ago.

since all the up river dams were built starting 45 years ago people have forgotten those lessons & started building anywhere they want without regard for mother nature so now their paying the price.

actually we all are paying the price because without cheap federal flood insurance people would never build in a flood plain.

Answer 11

Is this what you're looking for?.....

http://www.yahoo.com/s/903298

or this?...

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/global...

Answer 12

It's not an unusual event.  The problem is parts of Iowa were built on a Flood Plain.  There is a reason this area is so named, it floods regardless of "global warming / climate change."  It's the same with Tornado Alley, so named because the topograpgy and area favor the frequency and development of tornadoes.  That is why we built trailer parks there and look agast at the destruction when a storm goes through.  

Then we build expensive homes on mountain slopes and blame nature when it rains for a month and the soil loosens and as a result of gravity, the whole side of the mountain slides off into the road, which also shouldn't have been built in an area known for avalanches.  

Then we build homes and cities right on seashores and blame global warming for a storm wave that goes some 200 feet inland-- something that has been going on since the beginning of time, and complain of all the damage that happened.  Move the structures farther inland and you won't have the problem.

I don't like seeing people lose their homes, but if we didn't build in stupid and dangerous places, we wouldn't have half the problems, and there wouldn't be billion dollar destruction and clean ups.

Answer 13

Hot sticky air hovers on the East Coast. Cool air is parked in the West. And when they repeatedly collide, it storms over an already saturated Iowa.

This has been the stuck weather pattern for weeks and it's led to tornadoes, thunderstorms, heavy rain and eventually record flooding.

Add to that La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, which some meteorologists think could be a factor. La Nina, which is the cooler side of El Nino, causes changes around the world, including more rain and snow in some of the Midwest. Even though La Nina itself is falling apart, its effects may still be felt in Iowa and Wisconsin.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jHVNd...

Answer 14

There was another flood in the 90. I am an old Eng. and to build a dam without a spillway to bypass it is crazy. The levies don't have spillways ,and why not.

Answer 15

In the midwest we have the 500 year plan and every year there's a chance we could get a flood. I'm just hoping that this won't happen again. So much damage, its so depressing to drive around and c all of the ppl who've lost their homes :(

Answer 16

I was taken by the History Ch presentation of the 'little ice age' . My overall take on this was one of question. I find myself questioning the sanctity of modern science. Common sense dictates that we know little of climate dynamics in a serious  and responsible way- a reliable way to predict the future climatology. If I garnered anything from this presentation, it would be the fact that human reason is of no real value to the inevitable rythem of world climate cycles. Fear mongors will abound and prosper during this real change.Many historians have documented this over the past 6 millenia!

Answer 17

This is not an unusual year.  Iowa is a little bit unusual,   We are to crest about 35' here.

Answer 18

The record snow fall in Southern Wisconsin,  and the amount of rain that fell.  Boatman is right about the levees with all the rush to save the world from global warming we are not focusing on things we need to focus on  like levees.   The major problem is Katrina was the levees we surely have not learned from history.   We cannot change weather we can adapt to it, and lately we are spending to much time on something that may happen (global warming) and have failed focus on events that do happen (flooding).