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| The remains of a vehicle are wrapped around a San Antonio bridge abutment after it was swept away by intense flash flooding early Thursday. |
But the humid days of summer tend to bring these tragedies on most frequent. As we in Vermont have seen in the last two summers.
Hot, humid air can hold a lot of water, and even a small weather disturbance under the right conditions can release torrents, creating flash floods almost in an instant.
Climate change has made this whole situation worse. The hotter, often more humid air brought to his by a warmer atmosphere can store more water in the air than ever before. Which in general leads to more intense rains than we are used to seeing.
It's only mid-June, and we're already starting in with the local, but deadly flash floods in different parts of the natiom
The worst of it so far was in and around San Antonio early Thursday.
Slow moving thunderstorms settled over the San Antonio area, dumping eight inches of rain in just a few hours, with four inches of rain in just one hour between 3 and 4 a.m. Thursday.
The flash flood killed 13 people, mostly in cars abruptly swept off a highway into raging waters.
NBC News reports that at least 15 vehicles were swept into rapidly rising and rapidly flowing water on or near Perrin Beitel Road in San Antonio. At least 10 people from those vehicles were rescued. But other cars were found far downstream, their wreckage sometimes wrapped around bridge abutments or other debris.
At least 70 water rescues were performed throughout the city.
San Antonio lies just east of a an escarpment that sometimes helps trap Gulf of Mexico moisture in the region, which can sometimes get dumped in intense thunderstorms. San Antonio is the nation's seventh largest city.
Miles of concrete and asphalt and development gives no place for water to soak in, so downpours rush off in great gushes through parts of the city. Plus, of course, those more intense climate-change driven downpours make things worse.
It hasn't just been San Antonio lately.
Severe flooding hit in and near Wheeling, West Virginia Saturday. At least three people were killed in this flooding and others are missing. Authorities performed numerous water rescues. Some areas around Wheeling received 2.5 to 4 inches of rain within a half hour.
On Friday, a flash flood emergency and particularly dangerous situation was declared around Evansville, Indiana. Three to six inches of rain fell within a couple hours there, instantly flooding streets. Numerous people had to be rescued from stranded cars.
Also on Friday and Saturday, flash floods hit scattered parts of the central Appalachians.
Sunday morning, Oklahoma City was under a flash flood warning for the second time this month. Meteorologists were deeply concerned Sunday about a risk of flooding today in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
Even before summer started, it's been a bad year for flooding in the U.S. Extreme flooding hit areas in and around Kentucky back in February and again in April.
So far, we in Vermont have been spared the worst of the flooding, but we've already had our share of problems in 2025. Flash flooding on May 17 damaged roads and homes in Waitsfield, Warren, Hartford, White River Junction and other towns,
Roads in southeastern Vermont were damaged in flash flooding on June 6-7.
Looking ahead at the nation's upcoming flash flood prospects, a humid, sluggish airmass is forecast to linger over much of the eastern and southern United States for the next several days. At least scattered instances of flash flooding are possible daily in various parts of the eastern two thirds of the U.S.
For us in Vermont, the next chance of any flood problems would be this Thursday. It's possible downpours expected Thursday could be intense enough to create isolated instances of flash flooding. However, it's too soon to know for sure.
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