(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Tropical Storm Alberto is making landfall in Mexico; Texas gets soaked too [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-21  

Via Yale Climate Connections:

Tropical Storm Alberto batters northeastern Mexico and Texas The Atlantic season’s first tropical storm was bringing moderate to major flooding to the Texas coast and dropping heavy rains in Mexico.

Although the storm is making landfall in Mexico, the rain is extending far to the north and east, as is storm surge. While Texas has been having an extended dry spell, the rain may fall faster than the ground can absorb it. One of the consequences of climate change is that weather extremes become more…extreme.

…Even before the storm was named, Alberto’s huge, lopsided wind field drove a large storm surge of 3-4 feet to the central and upper Texas coast during the high tide cycle on Wednesday morning. Major coastal flooding occurred from Freeport to Galveston, including Surfside Beach (see video below). The National Hurricane Center (NHC) had warned for days that Alberto’s unusual northward extent would bring more surge to Texas than one might expect from a weak tropical storm so far to the south. …The primary threat will be heavy rains extending well inland across northeast Mexico and far south Texas. Although drought has been a major issue across this region, the rains from Alberto may fall far too quickly for the parched ground to absorb. Widespread amounts of 4 to 8 inches are expected, with pockets of up to 20 inches possible in the higher terrain of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas states. Heavy rains from Alberto are already being blamed for 11 deaths in El Salvador and three in Guatemala. Further north, Alberto will continue to make its presence felt in Texas with gusty winds and continued coastal storm surge of 2-4 feet as far north as the Galveston area and 1-3 feet into southwest Louisiana. Given Alberto’s unusually sprawling structure, the Texas surge may end up actually exceeding the surge just north of Alberto’s landfall location in Mexico, which is predicted to be 1-3 feet.

There’s much more at the link at the top of this post.

While climate change has not been a huge issue in the presidential race so far — other than GOP efforts to deny it and promises to roll back everything Biden has done to tackle it — the next few months are likely to see climate events dominating the news cycle.



People will be struggling to survive, recovering from disasters, dealing with damage, and finding insurance coverage increasingly unaffordable.

If Democrats are looking for a wedge issue on which Republicans are vulnerable, climate is just sitting there. The red states are where it will be hitting hardest.

Don’t let a real crisis go to waste: get every ounce of political advantage out of it possible. It’s never a mistake to get credit for doing the right thing — or to take advantage of your political opponents failure to cope with reality.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/21/2247801/-Tropical-Storm-Alberto-is-making-landfall-in-Mexico-Texas-gets-soaked-too?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/