Review of Cleveland rainfall records indicates climate change has arrived

A climate change storm isn’t coming. It’s already here.

That’s the conclusion drawn by some climate scientists — and supported by an independent analysis of National Weather Service rainfall records by The Plain Dealer.

The rainfall records reveal an increasing number of days each year with heavy storms — those quick, violent bursts that drop a large amount of rain in a short time. Those types of storms more often also lead to damaging and expensive suburban flooding — and conversely, dangerously dry periods or even drought in between.

“I think rainfall events are probably the biggest change in all of the Midwest,” said Mike Timlin, head climatologist with the Midwest Regional Climate Center in Illinois. The center advises Ohio and several other states in the region on climate issues.

“The changing climate is showing up in daily rainfall totals and days where we get more than half an inch or more of rain.”

In other words: When it rains, it pours.

Which is precisely what climate models said would happen in a warming climate: more intense storms pouring out of a warmer environment capable of holding — and suddenly releasing — more moisture.

Worse, heavy rains are often thunderstorms of the hit-and-miss variety — leaving some underwater and some wishing for water.

Cleveland Plain Dealer