Welcome to Locally Sourced, a biweekly Covering Climate Now newsletter for journalists working to localize the climate story. Share this newsletter with colleagues and journalism students interested in localizing the climate story. Vea la versión en español de “Fuentes Locales.”
Story Spark: Flooding
More than 20 trillion gallons of water fell across the American Southeast as Hurricane Helene carved a path of “biblical devastation” made worse due to climate change.
Research (and physics) show that extreme rainfall is becoming more frequent and intense across the world as a warmer atmosphere can “hold” more moisture. Southern Appalachia is just the latest example, with Brazil, Nepal, Central Europe, Central and Western Africa, and many more also facing historic floods this year.
Climate change is expected to continue increasing flood risks across the country, especially the East and Gulf coasts. However, as we’ve seen in North Carolina, where 98% of homeowners don’t have flood insurance, extreme rainfall can occur far inland in areas once thought to be “climate havens.”
Stories We Like
- The Texas Tribune examines one rural Texas community that has been slowly abandoned after years of flooding and intense rain. Its past residents now join the nearly 3.2 million Americans displaced due to increasing risks linked to climate change.
- By comparing a warmer atmosphere to kitchen sponges, NBC News succinctly explains how climate change is fueling more powerful downpours.
- In West Palm Beach, WPTV explores how the “Florida Wildlife Corridor,” an 18 million acre span of farms and wetlands across the state, protects against flooding and other climate fueled disasters.
- Across the South, African American cemeteries are at risk as severe flooding threatens to erase Black history. Reckon Media investigates.
- TAPinto Princeton highlights how moving one of New Jersey’s oldest homes away from climate change-driven flood zone has resulted in a bureaucratic nightmare.
- In Fort Meyers, Fla., NBC-2 highlights potential flood management strategies as climate change increases flood risks in residential areas.
- In the aftermath of devastating floods in Connecticut earlier this year, FOX 61 in Hartford reports on state lawmakers pushing for climate change measures in the upcoming legislative session.
Reporting Tips
Rebecca Hersher, a correspondent for NPR’s Climate Desk, offers tips for reporting on flooding. This year Hersher explored the human cost of climate change, highlighting the lives of loved ones lost due to flooding and extreme heat in a special series, “The Undercount.”
Include the larger climate context, even in short news stories. If a flood is record-breaking, note that record-breaking flooding is getting more common in many parts of the country as the planet warms. If a flood was caused by very heavy rain, note that such rainfall is getting more likely because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. If a flood was caused by a high tide, note that sea level rise is causing high tide flooding to get more common.
Use simple superlatives to describe the magnitude of the flooding, such as “the most rain ever recorded in the area in such a short period of time.” Avoid terms like “100-year flood.” While such probabilistic language can be useful for statistics-minded scientists, it’s confusing and misleading for the general public because it suggests that, if you’ve experienced one 100-year flood, you won’t experience another in your lifetime. In reality, a 100-year flood has a 1-in-100 probability of happening any year. And that’s before you consider that such floods are getting more common in many places as Earth warms.
Focus on the personal impacts. Flooding is both deadly and expensive. Asking simple questions can help your reporting feel real to people. Who died, and how? What could have been done to prevent death or damage? Deaths from flooding are largely avoidable, and infrastructure usually plays a big part in where water collects and whose homes or livelihoods are affected.
Lean into the local angle. Flooding is a hyperlocal phenomenon — one street might be underwater while the next street over is dry. Question local floodplain managers, waste and stormwater authorities, transportation departments, and housing officials about why some places flooded and some didn’t. Such conversations can help drive your reporting in a more solutions-oriented direction, while also helping the audience explain who in the community is most at risk from flooding.
Helpful Links and Visuals
Maps
- Use this interactive map by the National Water Prediction Service to see the current conditions and predicted flood stages of the over 10,000 flood gages in the US.
- Easily view coastal flood information via NOAA’s Coastal Inundation Dashboard.
- Explore official FEMA flood maps to determine your community’s flood risk. We recommend first reading their tutorial on how to read and understand flood zones.
- See daily rainfall reports from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), a community-driven network of volunteer weather observers across the US.
Resources
- Climate Central has resources estimating current and future annual flood losses for your area.
- The New York–based nonprofit First Street recently released a risk assessment report, which explores the change in “1-in-100-year flood events” across the country.
- Reach out to your local state climate office to better understand local trends and data.
- Dive into World Weather Attribution’s reporting guide to better navigate the question, “was this flood made worse by climate change?”
- Explore SciLine’s research-backed resources to use in your flood coverage.
Before We Go…
The next Locally Sourced will highlight climate anxiety. Reported stories about extreme weather or climate anxiety? Send them to us at local[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We’d love to consider them for the next edition of Locally Sourced and our media trainings and social platforms.
Learn more about weather attribution science — how we know that a particular weather event was impacted by climate change. Watch our recent webinar, co-hosted with Climate Central and World World Weather Attribution, where we dig into the science.
The Climate Station is a free-of-cost training program from Covering Climate Now that equips local TV station newsrooms in the United States, including journalists, producers, and meteorologists, to cover climate news more effectively. For inquiries, please email Elena González at elena[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org.
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