Last week we experienced flooding that we have not seen since Tropical Storm Irene.

Some communities saw over 8 inches of rain and the village of Plymouth tallied over 9 inches. The rain caused flash flooding across the Green Mountain State with those living near rivers experiencing moderate to major flooding. The Winooski River in Montpelier as reached its second highest crest ever, second only to the flood of 1927.

Flooding like this can be called “once a 100-year flood” but in our region we saw two 100-year floods in the past 12 years. Statistically, it’s possible for flooding events like this to happen so close to each other but the role climate change is playing makes these prolific rainstorms even more likely from year to year.

According to Climate Central, as our world warms and we deposit more CO2 into the air, it allows the atmosphere to store more water. This process is resulting in the higher likelihood of flooding rains with each passing storm instead of the lighter, steadier rains like we have been used to in the past.

Now is the time to start adapting to severe weather events such as this historic flooding event because they are only becoming more common with an ever-warming world.