Wild weather sparks concern about “new norm”

WIMBERLEY Deadly flooding in the Hill Country. A withering flash drought across Texas. Wildfires near Bastrop. Record rainfall and more flooding in Central Texas.

Texas has been hit by a roller- coaster of wildly fluctuating weather this year that has destroyed homes, ruined thousands of acres of crops and led to more than a dozen deaths.

Weather patterns influenced by El Niño jammed the jet stream in a holding pattern over Texas, causing much of the extreme weather, meteorologists said. Climatologists are studying the patterns to determine if the weather swings are one- off occurrences or signs of a “new normal” brought on by climate change.

Some residents in this beleaguered city, where severe flooding from the Blanco River in May killed 12 people and destroyed more than 70 homes and businesses, aren’t taking any chances.

Mike and Gay Sullivan are rebuilding their two- story home on the river’s north bank with hurricane straps, steel beams and a metal porch to keep it and themselves from being washed away in another flood. A few years ago, they also installed a metal roof to protect against wildfire embers.

The couple survived the May floods, only to be hit with a three- month drought, followed by more heavy rains last month that swelled the Blanco River to within a foot of their home.

“It’s the new normal,” Gay Sullivan, 76, said. “Things are changing, and they’re changing drastically. You need to make adjustments and try to prepare for them.”

The question climatologists are now wrestling with is whether more of these weather swings will occur with the warming of the planet and climate change.

In Texas, a key culprit in the crazy weather was El Niño, a periodic warming of tropical Pacific Ocean water that affects weather around the world, said Matt Lanza, an energy industry meteorologist in Houston.

“Typically, strong El Niño springs in Texas are wet, summers are dry, and autumns slowly transition back to wet again. This year has obviously been extreme in a huge way,” Lanza said.

JOEL SALCIDO, USA TODAY Mike and Gay Sullivan currently live in their son’s RV as they work on rebuilding their home in Wimberley, Texas.