Contribution of historical precipitation change to US flood damages.

ABSTRACT: Precipitation extremes have increased across many regions of the United States, with further increases anticipated in response to additional global warming. Quantifying the impact of these precipitation changes on flood damages is necessary to estimate the costs of climate change. However, there is little empirical evidence linking changes in precipitation to the historically observed increase in flood losses. We use >6,600 reports of state-level flood damage to quantify the historical relationship between precipitation and flood damages in the United States. Our results show a significant, positive effect of both monthly and 5-d state-level precipitation on state-level flood damages. In addition, we find that historical precipitation changes have contributed approximately one-third of cum

SUBMITTER: Davenport FV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7848586 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature