Steven Pisano | flickr

New York City and surrounding areas have faced weekend rains for eight consecutive weekends.

This weather pattern – an “atmospheric traffic jam” — has been a trend ever since a storm hit New York City in late September that tore through neighborhoods with eight inches of rain, completely flooding some areas.

The atmospheric traffic jam results from “persistent area of high pressure over Canada, Greenland or the Arctic.” Meteorologists call this a blocking pattern where storms occur every six to seven days in the same area.

The reason rainfall has been occurring every weekend in New York City is due to sheer bad luck; however, like many recent detrimental weather pattern shifts, the crux of the issue is climate change.

In the latest National Climate Assessment, the United States Global Change Research Program detailed that rainfall events have increased by 55% since the 1950s and the trend is likely to continue into the next century.

This amount of rainfall is directly tied to climate change due to global warming. The warming effect of greenhouse gasses increases the rate of evaporation of water, which then is transformed into water vapor trapped in dense clouds.

These clouds reach their tipping point much quicker than previously recorded because the earthly systems in place to regulate the biosphere are overwhelmed by humanity’s wanton destruction of its ecosystems. Subsequently, rainfall is occurring more frequently, more suddenly, and more intensely.

According to data from the National Weather Service, Central Park received more rain in Sep. 2023 than any other September since 1883.

“This is unfortunately what we have to expect as the new normal.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that in response to the September extreme rainfalls.

The increasing risk of storms and storm-related extreme weather is no stranger to New York City officials.

In a report from 2021, city officials released a report titled “The New Normal” in which planned to strengthen the city’s infrastructure are laid out in preparation for the oncoming storms. The plan laid out a series of efforts expected in the coming years, including expanding the Flood Sensor Network citywide and rolling out a citywide map of combined flood risk and a model of all flooding hazards.

However, the efforts seem more than anything else to be a band-aid solution to a global problem that needs to be adequately addressed as such.

Continuing climate change without appropriate intervention efforts to reduce the warming effect humanity currently has on the planet will only serve to continue these detrimental cycles of drought and deluge that have long held a destructive grip over the world as a whole and coastal cities.