Extreme Downpours More Likely, Report Says

December 7, 2007

In April, hundreds of New Hampshire residents fled their homes as heavy rains swelled rivers across the southern part of the state, causing the kind of flooding forecasters say might be expected just once in a century.

For many, it was history repeating itself: Their homes had been swamped in a similar "hundred-year flood" less than 12 months before.

Now a study of historical records says storms producing the kind of extreme precipitation that caused those floods have become more common all over the country in the last 60 years — and nowhere more than in New England.

"We're already seeing what climate scientists say is going to happen if we continue to pump global warming pollution into the atmosphere," said James Moore of Vermont Public Interest Research Group, one of the Environment America state affiliates participating in the report.

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Read VPIRG report