Extreme weather raises concerns

risks, according July 2015 report.

Of the 12 hottest years on record, 11 have occurred since 2003 and the only one outside that range was 1998, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information inAsheville, N.C. From2014 to 2016, world records were set for the hottest year, with each 12-month period breaking the mark set by its predecessor.

“With a warmer climate, we certainly expect that extremes at both ends of the water cycle will increase — floods and droughts,” said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

The atmosphere can hold about 7 percent more moisture for every 1 degree Celsius theworld’s temperature rises, Trenberth said.

“In places where it’s not raining, there’s extra heat that goes into drying and exacerbating drought and wildfire,” he said.

The rains in Texas and Oklahoma set records for monthly downpours. Oklahoma City had its all-time wettest month in May with 19.48 inches of rain; 7.1 inches came on a single day, May 6, National Weather Service records show.

In Memphis, the Mississippi River reached its secondcrest in May 2012 — 12 feet above flood stage. The river dropped 57.89 feet in height over the course of the next year.

Across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California’s snowpackwas the lowest on record in 2015, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. In April, it was 21 times larger, with individual sites that set records, theNational Weather Service said.

“In a warm world you swing out a little further,” Anderson said. “It may not leave you enough time to adapt.” to