, put out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are only sporadically updated. That means water systems are still being designed for the climate of the past.
"The past is no longer a good predictor of what's coming our way," says Rachel Cleetus, climate policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists."We will have many, many people and billions of dollars of infrastructure at risk if we don't do better going forward."When it comes to water infrastructure needs, Louisville, Kentucky has a long to-do list.
"We don't necessarily think about the structure under our feet that needs to be ready when a storm hits, but because those climate change storms are happening more and more frequently, now is the time to invest to update those systems," says Stephanie Laughlin, infrastructure planning manager at Louisville MSD.
Louisville MSD is using that climate change forecasting to help design its major water facilities, like upgrading Paddy's Run, a 70-year old pumping station on the Ohio River that protects 70,000 homes from flooding.Residents in Merced, California wade across a flooded parking lot in the recent storms.
With new funding, NOAA will also include projections of how climate change could increase precipitation across the country. A hotter atmosphere is able to hold more water vapor, driving more intense rainfall from storms. "We're looking for those opportunities to accelerate, but we want to make sure the data and the products are of high quality," says Fernando Salas, director of the Geo-Intelligence Division NOAA's Office of Water Prediction.Most states are still using outdated rainfall records to design their stormwater infrastructure. In a hotter climate, storms are dropping more intense rainfall.