Policy changes needed after flooding due to high snowfall

Cold, rainy, wet springs are not a surprise to most Minnesotans—while we have all been ready to ditch the hats and jackets, Mother Nature has decided to keep us guessing with mixtures of rain, snow and sunshine these past few weeks.

Actually, St. Cloud just recorded the highest snowfall in generations—88.2 inches of snow has fallen on the city over the 2022-2023 winter, with the past record being 87.9 inches in 1965. However, the consequences of such snowfall are already catching up all over Minnesota. Rivers like the St. Croix and the Mississippi are flooding over into neighborhoods, roads and businesses—according to the National Weather Service, there are flood warnings all across the state for cities that border the Mississippi River, Minnesota River, Sauk River, Crow River, Chippewa River, St. Croix river and more.

You’re probably thinking, “oh come on, there’s flooding every spring; there will always be snow and rain in the spring; why should we care that much?” This extreme level of flooding isn’t new—in fact, extreme weather patterns are becoming a new norm. According to climate.gov, the U.S. experienced 18 different weather and climate disasters in 2022, 20 events in 2021 and 22 events in 2023. It won’t end there—an article by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory describes how current climate data indicates an increase in wet rain and snow days for North America, especially impacting the Midwest and West Coast.

According to their data interpretation, extreme rain and snowfall will release 20-30% more moisture, which will impact the flood season. Again, you might be confused—isn’t more water and more moisture good for these states, especially for droughts? Not necessarily. Extreme flooding, including flash floods, can wipe out homes, businesses and agricultural centers faster than can be built. Many locations aren’t prepared to deal with long-term and more frequent flooding—places have to close, infrastructure takes on damage and we all have to pay the price.

With these predictions, the DOE Berkeley Lab hopes that people can begin preparing beforehand by adjusting construction to accommodate floods or find different locations for crops to avoid the plants being swept away or drowned. Along with this, these predictions set up an image of the future—weather patterns indicate an increase in extreme weather events, as the DOE Berkeley lab points out. As much as we want to take it on ourselves to be the change alone (like trying to live a more carbon-aware, green lifestyle), we can’t fight the weather.

What can be done? Policy change. Advocate to your politicians to support environmentally-conscious policies—become informed and look at the research. This dataset that predicts future extreme weather is part of a larger project called Localized Construction Analogs Version 2; these programs can be used to help prepare for this weather and bring forward the patterns that indicate serious climate change. LOCA2 also has climate projections that use over 70 years of weather data across the North American continent and has projections that differ based on greenhouse gas emission scenarios. LOCA2 and other programs are preparing for the worst and allowing this data to be used freely for city planners and other infrastructure decision-makers; advocating for policy changes gives us the chance to prepare and perhaps alter the future of extreme weather and climate changes.