Southern Plains Heavy Rain – National Weather Outlook For May 17, 2021

National Weather Forecast

With a somewhat stationary boundary in place from the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley back into the Plains and Great Basin, showers and thunderstorms will be possible across this region, with some snow at higher elevations in the Rockies and in Utah. A system in New England will bring the potential of storms. And some rain with Cascades rain/snow will be possible in the Pacific Northwest with an approaching system.

The focal point for very heavy rain through Tuesday evening will be across the Southern and Central Plains, where 2-5” totals will be possible as Gulf of Mexico moisture streams north into the region. This is likely to lead to flooding across the region, with Flood/Flash Flood Watches in place.

And that won’t be the end of the heavy rain over the Southern Plains this week. Through early next Sunday, some areas of Texas and Oklahoma could receive 6-9” of rain.

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Another dangerous fire season is looming in the Western U.S., and the drought-stricken region is headed for a water crisis

More from The Conversation: “Just about every indicator of drought is flashing red across the western U.S. after a dry winter and warm early spring. The snowpack is at less than half of normal in much of the region. Reservoirs are being drawn down, river levels are dropping and soils are drying out. It’s only May, and states are already considering water use restrictions to make the supply last longer. California’s governor declared a drought emergency in 41 of 58 counties. In Utah, irrigation water providers are increasing fines for overuse. Some Idaho ranchers are talking about selling off livestock because rivers and reservoirs they rely on are dangerously low and irrigation demand for farms is only just beginning. Scientists are also closely watching the impact that the rapid warming and drying is having on trees, worried that water stress could lead to widespread tree deaths. Dead and drying vegetation means more fuel for what is already expected to be another dangerous fire season.”

Exxon Blames You for Climate Change

More from Earther: “Over the past few decades, oil companies have largely shifted away from climate denial. Now, you can see the energy giants openly acknowledge that climate change is happening, but their new messaging tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth. A new, first-of-its-kind study by Harvard researchers Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes explains why: The new language makes it seem like climate change is our fault, not theirs. “It’s a really pernicious kind of gaslighting,” said Supran. The authors, who published their work One Earth on Thursday, used machine learning to analyze 212 public and internal Exxon documents from 1972 and 2019, including all publicly available internal company memos, all advertorials the company paid for in the New York Times, and all of the firm’s flagship climate change reports. For the painstaking research, they employed three different forms of computational linguistics to locate the differences in how Exxon talks about climate change in public versus in private. The discrepancies were stark.”

Half of emissions cuts will come from future tech, says John Kerry

More from The Guardian: “The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions. He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions. “You don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve. That’s the brilliance of some of the things that we know how to do,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show. “I am told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality.”

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– D.J. Kayser