At least 90 people died and more than a dozen disappeared after sudden devastating floods hit the center of Texas during the weekend of July 4. Research and rescue operations are still underway, as more rain is expected to hit the battered region in the coming days.
A certain number of conditions have met to provoke deadly floods, according to experts. “”[The storm was] Powered by hot and humid air combined with the remains of the tropical storm Baryl on very interesting geography, “explains Slobodan Simonovic, emeritus professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western University.
What caused the sudden floods?
The floods were partially triggered by the remains of the tropical storm Barry, who led to Mexico at the end of last month.
“When you have a tropical cyclone, the system dies, but this system still puts a lot of water vapor in the atmosphere,” explains Aigéo Dai, professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University of Albany, Sany. “The humidity stays in the air and moves with the winds, and in this case, it looks like a part of the water vapor of this rest [central] Texas.”
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It is not uncommon for this to happen. Barry is the 20th tropical or resident cyclone to cause more than 15 inches of rain inside Texas since 1913, according to the National Meteorological Service. Last fall, the remains of Hurricane Helene led to devastating floods in the Appalachian region. In 2021, the sudden floods of the remains of Hurricane Ida killed dozens of people in four states.
Texas Hill Country, where a large part of the floods took place this time, is often called “alley of sudden floods”. It is the house for a steep terrain and a lack of vegetation that creates a perfect storm for the waters to get up quickly.
“In a mountainous, [sloping] Land, water can work very quickly from the upper drainage zone in a river basin and create a very fast rising river in a few hours, “said Dai.” Downstream, people may not notice that there is an intense storm upstream. “”
How does climate change have an impact on sudden floods?
Climate change will only make events like this more common. “The transformation of the increase in temperature in more heavy and more [frequent] Precipitation, this is very simple proof that with continuous warming, we will face more and more events like this, ”explains Simonovic.
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Tropical storms and hurricanes will no longer become intense with climate change, because the increase in ocean temperatures intensifies evaporation, making air wet and leading to stronger and more destructive storms.
Simonovic says that it is imperative that we are starting to recognize that the realities of climate change are already there – and the better we plan to adapt to it. “Things are changing, but also things have changed. Losing 80 lives in Texas in the middle of 2025 is really difficult to accept. We must be prepared and prevent this from happening more often. ”
