Global Warming May Mean More Downpours

While tornadoes normally take center stage during severe weather season, for Oklahoma City on Wednesday, it was torrential rains and flash flooding that overshadowed the twisters.
The city recorded more than 7 inches of rain in 24 hours, the third-highest single day rainfall total for any day since record-keeping began in 1891. The deluge caused major flooding that damaged roads and buildings and sent cars floating down streets turned into rivers.
While people in the Great Plains are no strangers to heavy downpours—the largest 24-hour rainfall total was recorded not long ago in June 2010—it’s something they, along with the rest of the nation, could expect more of as the world warms and the atmosphere sucks up more moisture.