Climate

Washington Post -   Some of the most extreme weather in the United States this summer have been driven by an invisible force pooling in the skies above: water vapor.

Although recent destructive floods in Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Texas, West Virginia and many other states may seem geographically disconnected, they share a link to something happening thousands of miles away, in a remote stretch of the tropical Pacific Ocean.

That’s where the combination of a record-breaking El Niño, a marine heat wave and the ocean-warming tailwind from climate change have sent much more moisture into the atmosphere than normal. So far this summer, total atmospheric moisture levels have been about 5 to 15 percent above average in the Pacific and across much of the U.S.

An analysis by The Washington Post shows that since June, this extra moisture, transported by winds, has spilled into the contiguous United States, helping to fuel record-breaking rainfall in parts of 44 out of 48 states, covering about 90,000 square miles.