The Result of Climate Change: New York’s Extreme Flooding Crisis

The sudden crisis in New York on Friday, September 29, has the world in disbelief over the effects of climate change. An extensive storm system took over the five boroughs and parts of upstate New York. Throughout Friday, the rain remained relentless and eventually resulted in New York Governor Kathy Hochul declaring a state of emergency, allowing faster resource allocation to deal with the crisis. There were water-submerged highways, subway systems grounding to a halt, a flooding terminal at LaGuardia and residents walking through the streets with water up to their knees. This amount of rain in New York hasn't been seen in September in over a century. A result of climate change wouldn't be the worst estimate as to why our world is imbalanced more than ever.

Smaller storms are growing both more fearsome and more often, but they aren't your typical fierce coastal Nor’easter or tropical storm. The chief of forecast operations at the National Weather Service’s weather prediction center stated that it had resulted from “smaller-scale features” like bands of heavy rainfall and scattered thunderstorms. These small-scale features are becoming a weather pattern as a result of climate change. A month's rain fell on New York City in just a few hours! The climate is changing faster than the infrastructure in New York City can keep up with to sustain the enormous amount of rain that fell on New York City on September 29.

Climate scientists have warned that this type of pounding of rainfall in short amounts of time is due to a warming planet. A hotter atmosphere is able to hold more moisture thus releasing torrential amounts of rainfall. Tommaso Alberti, a researcher at Italy’s Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica Vulcanologia, said that the extreme event that hit New York City “aligns with climate change projections.” He added that “human-driven climate change is the primary driver, underscoring the urgent need for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.”

It is your own conscious choice to make an impact on the world, take accountability and start advocating for change and the stopping of climate change.