Floods News

June 13, 2025

Top Headlines

Coastal Flooding More Frequent Than Previously Thought

June 2, 2025 — Flooding in coastal communities is happening far more often than previously thought, according to a new study. The study also found major flaws with the widely used approach of using marine water level data to capture instances of ...

Researchers Use Deep Learning to Predict Flooding This Hurricane Season

June 2, 2025 — Researchers have developed a deep learning model called LSTM-SAM that predicts extreme water levels from tropical cyclones more efficiently and accurately, especially in data-scarce coastal regions, to offer a faster, low-cost tool for flood ...

2021's Hurricane Ida Could Have Been Even Worse for NYC

May 29, 2025 — Hurricane Ida wreaked an estimated $75 billion in total damages and was responsible for 112 fatalities -- including 32 in New Jersey and 16 in New York state. Yet the hurricane could have been even worse in the Big Apple, find ...

'Future-Proofing' Crops Will Require Urgent, Consistent Effort

May 29, 2025 — A professor of crop sciences and of plant biology describes research efforts to 'future-proof' the crops that are essential to feeding a hungry world in a changing climate. Long, who has spent decades studying the process of photosynthesis and ...

Breakthrough AI Model Could Transform How We Prepare for Natural Disasters

May 22, 2025 — From deadly floods in Europe to intensifying tropical cyclones around the world, the climate crisis has made timely and precise forecasting more essential than ever. Yet traditional forecasting methods rely on highly complex numerical models ...

How Property Owners Can Work to Prevent Flooding

May 22, 2025 — The risk of heavy rainfall and severe flooding increases with climate change. But property owners -- regardless of size -- often underestimate their own responsibility and are unaware of what preventive measures they can take ...

World's Rivers Remapped to Improve Flood Modeling

May 15, 2025 — A team has created the most complete map of the world's rivers ever made offering a major leap forward for flood prediction, climate risk planning, and water resource management in a warming world. The new study introduces GRIT -- a mapping system ...

Climate Change Is Turning Coastal Lagoons Into 'Salty Soup'

May 14, 2025 — The impacts of human activity and climate change are coalescing to make coastal lagoons saltier, changing the microbial life they support and the function they play in their ecosystems, according to new ...

All of the Biggest U.S. Cities Are Sinking

May 8, 2025 — A new study of the 28 most populous U.S. cities finds that all are sinking to one degree or another. The cities include not just those on the coasts, where relative sea level is a concern, but many in the interior. Furthermore, using newly granular ...

Flood Risk Increasing in Pacific Northwest

Apr. 28, 2025 — A powerful earthquake, combined with rising sea levels, could significantly increase flood risks in the Pacific Northwest, impacting thousands of residents and properties in northern California, Oregon, and Washington, according to new research. The ...

Extreme Rainfall: A Long-Standing Hypothesis on Temperature Dependence Finally Settled?

Apr. 28, 2025 — Flash floods resulting from extreme rainfall pose a major risk to people and infrastructure, especially in urban areas. Higher temperatures due to global climate change affect continuous rainfall and ...

Coastal Management Model Plays the Long Game Against the Rising Tides

Apr. 21, 2025 — To protect against rising sea levels in a warming world, coastal cities typically follow a standard playbook with various protective infrastructure options. For example, a seawall could be designed based on the latest climate projections, with the ...

Latest Headlines

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Experiment in Floodplain Forest: Using Tree Mortality to Support Oak Regeneration

Apr. 16, 2025 — The pedunculate oaks typical of Leipzig's floodplain forest and other German oak forests are struggling to regenerate in the understorey due to a ...

Hundred-Year Storm Tides Will Occur Every Few Decades in Bangladesh, Scientists Report

Apr. 11, 2025 — For the highly populated coastal country of Bangladesh, once-in-a-century storm tides could strike every 10 years -- or more often -- by the end of ...

Deep-Sea Mining Risks Leads Study to Urge Shift to Circular Solutions

Apr. 14, 2025 — Deep sea mining operations are expected to increase the negative impact on environmental indicators by up to 13 per cent, a change categorized as having 'great' significance, relative to the ...

Long-Term Health Impacts of Flooding Revealed

Apr. 8, 2025 — A comprehensive study of the long-term health impacts of flooding -- via analysis of over 300 million hospitalizations records in eight countries prone to flooding events -- has found an increased ...

Soil Conditions Significantly Increase Rainfall in World's Megastorm Hotspots

Apr. 4, 2025 — Storm forecasting is traditionally based on studying atmospheric conditions but ground-breaking research that also looks at land surface conditions ...

Coastal Guardians Pioneer a New Way to Protect the Florida Keys' Shorelines

Mar. 18, 2025 — Nature-based solutions like restoring mangroves, and hybrid solutions, protect vulnerable shorelines. However, they need careful planning to be effective. A new GIS-based tool, combined with varied ...

How Climate Change Affects Rain and Floods

Mar. 12, 2025 — Climate change may lead to more precipitation and more intense floods. A new study shows that to understand the details of this relationship, it is important to distinguish between different types of ...

Earth's Orbital Rhythms Link Timing of Giant Eruptions and Climate Change

Mar. 7, 2025 — An international team of scientists has synchronized key climate records from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to unravel the sequence of events during the last million years before the extinction of ...

Flooding Expected Sooner in Hawai'i's Sinking Coastal Areas

Mar. 5, 2025 — Some parts of Hawai'i are sinking faster than others. That discovery also highlights that as sea level rises, the infrastructure, businesses, and communities in these low-lying areas are at risk of ...

Coastal Erosion Threatens Ancient City, and Many Others

Feb. 20, 2025 — Research on the vanishing coastlines of Alexandria, Egypt, offers nature-based solutions for protecting coastal cities globally, including those in ...

Earth Scientists Study Sikkim Flood in India to Help Others Prepare for Similar Disasters

Jan. 30, 2025 — Experts from the global Earth science community have pieced together what happened during the massive Sikkim flood to try to help others prepare for similar ...

Antarctic Ice Sheet Faces 'Death by a Thousand Cuts'

Jan. 28, 2025 — Smaller calving events, not large icebergs, drive Antarctic ice sheet ...

New Evidence Suggests Megaflood Refilled the Mediterranean Sea Five Million Years Ago

Jan. 21, 2025 — A new study provides compelling new evidence that a colossal 'megaflood' refilled the Mediterranean Sea, ending a period during which the Med was a vast expanse of salt flats. The study ...

How Satellite Imagery Can Help Monitor Dangerous Lakes Formed by Glacier Surges Near High-Mountain Communities

Jan. 16, 2025 — A new study analyzing a lake formed by a glacier surge in the Karakoram Mountains has revealed how satellite images can be used to monitor the potential for lake drainage ...

Floods, Droughts, Then Fires: Hydroclimate Whiplash Is Speeding Up Globally

Jan. 9, 2025 — Hydroclimate whiplash -- rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather -- has already increased globally due to climate change, with further large increases expected as warming ...

How We Classify Flood Risk May Give Developers, Home Buyers a False Sense of Security

Jan. 6, 2025 — Traditional methods of communicating how likely an area is to flood focus on designating which zones are 'high risk.' This study suggests that this framing may give developers and ...

Climate Extremes in 2024 'Wreaking Havoc' on the Global Water Cycle

Jan. 6, 2025 — 2024 was another year of record-breaking temperatures, driving the global water cycle to new climate extremes and contributing to ferocious floods and crippling droughts, a new report shows. The ...

Floods Linked to Rise in US Deaths from Several Major Causes

Jan. 6, 2025 — Over the last 20 years, large floods were associated with up to 24.9 percent higher death rates from major mortality causes in the U.S. compared to normal conditions. A new study demonstrates the ...

Floods, Insufficient Water, Sinking River Deltas: Hydrologists Map Changing River Landscapes Across the Globe

Dec. 12, 2024 — A new study has mapped 35 years of river changes on a global scale. The work has revealed significant effects on both downstream (44% decrease in water flow) and upstream (17% flow increase) rivers, ...

Water and Forests in Southern US

Dec. 12, 2024 — Climate and land use change have and will continue to alter streamflow regimes and water quality through the 21st century, with consequences for drinking water treatment costs, flood protection, and ...

Flood Disasters Associated With Preterm Births and Low Birth Weights

Dec. 10, 2024 — A new analysis of more than 3,000 studies from around the world reveals that globally, flooding increases preterm births by about 3%. Children who were in utero during a flood event are also more ...

Scientists Urged to Pull the Plug on 'Bathtub Modeling' of Flood Risk

Dec. 6, 2024 — Recent decades have seen a rapid surge in damages and disruptions caused by flooding. Experts call on scientists to more accurately model these risks and caution against overly dramatized reporting ...

Mangroves Save $855 Billion in Flood Protection Globally, New Study Shows

Dec. 5, 2024 — Mangroves have been shown to provide $855 billion in flood protection services worldwide, according to a new ...

Swelling Streams -- Climate Change Causes More Sediment in High-Mountain Rivers

Dec. 4, 2024 — Many high-mountain rivers in Asia transport more sediment downstream compared to a few years ago. Changes in sediment levels have a particularly strong impact on agriculture, water quality, flood ...

What Triggered Nepal's Catastrophic 2021 Flood -- And Could It Happen Again?

Dec. 4, 2024 — Heavy monsoon rainfall, excessive snowmelt and unstable terrain combined to cause the 2021 Melamchi Valley flood disaster in Nepal, according to new research. The findings highlight how a mix of ...

New AI Tool Generates Realistic Satellite Images of Future Flooding

Nov. 25, 2024 — With help from AI, scientists developed a method that generates satellite imagery from the future to depict how a region would look after a potential flooding ...

Climate-Driven Hazards Increases Risk for Millions of Coastal Residents, Study Finds

Nov. 21, 2024 — A new study estimates that a 1-meter sea level rise by 2100 would affect over 14 million people and $1 trillion worth of property along the Southeast Atlantic ...

How Flood Risk Affects Home Values

Nov. 19, 2024 — Houses for sale in a flood zone are around 10% cheaper than surrounding areas, according to new research. However, the reduced price tag is not worth the extra risk and can burden buyers with ...

Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used to Predict River Discharge and Warn of Potential Flooding

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers have created a method that uses artificial intelligence to more accurately predict short-term river discharge using historical data from two hydrometric stations on the Ottawa River along ...

Some of the World's Least Polluting Populations Are at Much Greater Risk of Flooding Fueled by Climate Change

Nov. 7, 2024 — A new study has exposed for the first time how inhabitants of the smallest countries globally, contributing least to climate change, already bear the brunt of its devastating consequences and the ...