An unexpected item is blocking cities' climate change prep: obsolete rainfall records
American cities are poised to spend billions of dollars to improve their water systems under the federal infrastructure bill, the largest water investment in the nation's history.
Those new sewers and storm drains will need to withstand rainfall that's becoming more intense in a changing climate. But as cities make plans to tear up streets and pour cement, most have little to no information about how climate change will worsen future storms.
Many cities are still building their infrastructure for the climate of the past, using rainfall records that haven't been updated in decades. Those federal precipitation reports, which analyze historical rainfall data to tell cities what kinds of storms to plan for, are only sporadically updated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Rainfall reports for some states are 50 years old, which means they don't reflect how the climate has already changed in recent decades. And states themselves have to pay for those updates.
The disconnect between the kinds of upgrades a changing climate demands and the data available to communities is already imperiling lives. Heavier downpours are taking an increasing toll on cities, inundating homes and roads. Last summer, for example, fifty people drowned when the remnants of Hurricane urban stormwater drainage systems in the Northeast.
