Australians flee floods as death toll rises to 12; Sydney on alert

More sad and terrible news from Australia. And once again hearts out to those affected, and hats of to the emergency responders.

It sounds like vulnerable areas have infrastructure issues that have not been addressed but hopefully can be dealt with. Or would the Kochs and Rupert M. not approve of using government moneys and once again push their usual, government is bad messages. Too bad for Australians that two US American right wing extremists are messing things up down under, too. Or do Australians want to claim Murdoch as one of theirs?

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, scientists say climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.

Excuse me,is this a hoax?

Too bad for Australians that two US American right wing extremists are messing things up down under, too.

cant even give it a rest on an article about a flood in Australia.

nice made up term "hearts out" to avoid having to say that you really mean- "thoughts and prayers".

Australia needs to dramatically increase the size of it's navy and have flat bottomed ships able to sail inland during severe floods to rescue people and livestock.

ac cording to my friend in Oz:

"Huge problems with flooding in SE Queensland and Northern NSW.

All that water is wasted and flows out to sea.

The Greens and parochial Local Governments have prevented any dams or projects to move the water inland where it is needed. The Bradfield scheme was devised in 1938 to do this. Since then nothing..!!"

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, scientists say climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall

Don't go blaming it all on climate change. These floods have happened many times over the two centuries since European settlement. I’m nearly 60 and remember many floods in years fine by. Long before scientists started blaming in climate change. The Brisbane floods of 1974 were much worse. If they want to point fingers of blame they should be pointing them at the farmers who cut down all the trees and dammed rivers.

The rain bomb is heading south and will hit the mid-east coast and Sydney over the next 24 hours. However, it’s going to be quite different to the north with the low pressure compressing and turning into a mini cyclone with wind gust of 100kph+. Gonna be a hectic 24 hours here on the mid-east coast of Oz.

 I’m nearly 60 and remember many floods in years fine by. Long before scientists started blaming in climate change.

The article clearly says "increase the risk and intensity..." this is not about floods happening for the first time ever in history but that the risk of them happening (and their strength) is higher.

Perhaps Australia needs to build some dams and retention ponds NOW for the next drought, instead of letting all that moisture flow to the sea.

@Virusx spot on!

If only all that rain could be harnassed to build Australia's interior.

Its always been the dream. To make the middle of the country somewhere near hospitable. It all starts with water.

Lindsay clearly said “don’t go blaming it all on climate change”. He did not discount the part that climate change may play in intensifying extreme weather events

And the article is not doing that, which makes the criticism invalid, the argument that floods have happened before does absolutely nothing to contradict the quoted part. The article is simply mentioning one factor that affect the disaster never saying its the main or only cause for it.

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, scientists say climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.

Excuse me,is this a hoax?

Sigh. What happens when you turn the heat up on a pot of water? More steam. Turn it up even more. The water boils and the steam becomes more intense. Hot air can hold more water vapor than cold air. Turn up the heat on the oceans, the places where most big storms develop, and you get more water vapor rising into the atmosphere. Heat the atmosphere more and it can hold more water vapor, and you get more convection because heat rises. Convection is what powers big thunderstorms. It is not hard to understand at all. Something most people who have never studied weather (us pilots all have to btw) is that the Sun doesn't directly heat the atmosphere. The Sun heats the surface of the Earth, be it land or water. As the surface of the Earth heats up it transfers heat to the atmosphere. But the atmosphere can radiate some of that heat out into space so there is a balance kept. But more water vapor in the atmosphere along with more CO2 traps the heat and prevents some of it from radiating out into space, allowing the atmosphere to gradually heat up over time.