At least three people died in flash floods that hit eastern Kentucky on Thursday, with state officials warning that more deaths could be expected as rescue efforts continue. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the U.S., flash drought conditions are intensifying across the Southern Plains, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday morning. “Temperatures across the region were generally 2-8 degrees above normal, with the warmest values occurring in Oklahoma, Texas, northern Arkansas and the western half of Tennessee,” the US Drought Monitor wrote. Hot, dry weather also blanketed south-central and southwest Missouri, where drought intensified and agricultural problems continued. “Just to the north of this area, heavier rainfall fell in two areas, one from southeast Kansas City to southeast Missouri and a second in central, eastern and northeast Missouri. The latter caused flash flooding in the St. Louis area and record one-day rainfall at St. Louis Lambert Airport,” the US Drought Observatory wrote in its report. This rainfall, and now the flooding in Kentucky, has created a stark contrast across the state between no drought in the north and extreme drought across the southern part of the state. This is the inherent nature of the climate crisis: There will be more extremes at both ends of the spectrum – floods and droughts. This week showed that they can happen simultaneously in close proximity. Climate change is set to transform life on Earth as we know it, and unless global warming slows dramatically, billions of people and other species will reach points where they can no longer adapt to the new normal, according to a major US-backed UN. report, based on years of research by hundreds of scientists. The report, published in February, found that the effects of human-caused climate change were greater than previously thought. The report’s authors say these effects are happening much faster and are more disruptive and widespread than scientists expected 20 years ago. About half of the world’s population faces severe water scarcity each year, partly due to climate-related factors, the report showed. Water will become even more scarce at higher global temperatures. At 2 degrees of warming – which scientists predict the planet will reach by mid-century – up to three billion people worldwide will experience “chronic water scarcity”, according to the report. It rises to four billion people at 4 degrees. Water scarcity will put enormous pressure on food production and increase the world’s already dire food security challenges. Read on for how we have no ways to customize. CNN’s Rachel Ramirez contributed reporting to this post.
