Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Will We Energies look to/plan for changing climate after major downtown flood?

Recent rains produced costly, widespread flooding in numerous downtown Milwaukee structures, and along with repairs comes a search for responsibility.
Key downtown buildings sustain millions of dollars in damage from We Energies steam tunnel floods
...officials need not only to find the root cause but also to come up with a plan to prevent it from happening again.
Is anyone going to beyond litigating and scapegoating to examine whether this is yet another indication that long-predicted and damaging increases in Wisconsin rainfall due to climate change must be taken seriously and confronted, now?

Some sources, here:
SERIES: EXTREME PRECIPITATION AND WISCONSIN'S CLIMATE
Climate change is already beginning to affect Wisconsin in subtle but important ways. As the average global temperature creeps upward, climatologists have projected that the upper Midwest will experience heavier precipitation. This shift means not just a greater volume of water in the form of rain or snow, but also more intense storms happening more frequently. While climate change on its own isn't necessarily the culprit behind a given storm, its effects can intensify existing weather patterns and make long-running climatic cycles more unpredictable. While researchers work to understand how climate change interacts with seasonal cycles like El NiƱo and how human activities affect the outcome of catastrophic floods, communities across the state face new challenges protecting people, infrastructure and their economy.
Here:
Impacts and Adaptations 
Intense precipitation eventsBoth the frequency and magnitude of heavy rainfall event events have been increasing in Wisconsin.
Here, August 22, 2018:
Wisconsin landscape flooded with water, science dismissal, too.
Here, June 8, 2008:
In 2003, the EPA predicted heavier rain events 
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Heavy rains in 2018 boosted the Milwaukee River flow north of the city through Shorewood's Estabrook Park:



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