By: Marc Ransford—
Muncie, IN—Don’t expect the current daily deluge of rain to stop any time soon, says David Call, a meteorology professor at Ball State University.
And climate change may be to blame.
“The long-range forecast calls for continuous rain throughout the summer for the Midwest,” Call said. “Overall, it’s been a wet year and it will stay wet.”
He said the weather pattern for summer calls for warmer and wetter weather in the U.S. south and east and cooler in the north and west, he said.
“The jet stream is causing weather systems to track right through Indiana, funneling moisture into the Midwest. There are very few regions of the U.S. suffering any sort of drought, but lots of places are suffering flood conditions.”
Call points out that climate change may be causing the recent weather issues.
“With climate change, the planet gets warmer and puts more moisture in the air,” he said. “When you increase moisture, you increase rain. An inch more of rain here and there and you quickly are dealing with flooding.”
Call also noted that due to climate change, the jet stream over the U.S. will get weaker, creating more stagnant weather patterns.
“So, rain gets stuck over the same area. Right now, we are wondering if it will ever stop raining, but in 2012, we had the worst drought since the Dust Bowl and people wondered if it would ever rain again.”
