时间:2025-04-04 05:09:52 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
In 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington stationed the United States' long-range nuclear bomber
In 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington stationed the United States' long-range nuclear bombers at Offutt Air Force Base in eastern Nebraska, a location safe in the middle of the nation and well-insulated from the coast.
But 70 years later, the base -- now home to the U.S. Strategic Command which deters "catastrophic actions from adversaries and poses an immediate threat to any actor who questions U.S. resolve by demonstrating our capabilities" -- isn't safe from historic and record-setting floods.
Intense rains on top of the rapid melting of ample snow has inundated large swathes of Nebraska and a full one-third of the Offutt Air Force Base, including the headquarters building.
NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured before and after images of the flooding -- which the European Union Earth Observation Programme called "biblical." The overloaded river burgeoned in size, creeping into Offutt, neighborhoods, and farmlands.
A number of potent factors mixed to create what Offutt Air Force Base Commander Mike Manion has labeled a "1,000 year flood" -- meaning there's only a one in 1,000 chance of such an extreme event happening in any given year.
NASA noted that exceptionally cold Arctic blasts (from a wobbly polar vortex) preserved bounties of snow that soon rapidly melted when "unusually warm" March air produced massive amounts of runoff. Exacerbating matters, the winter's freeze made the ground less absorbent when extreme downpours then slammed the region.
If that wasn't enough, big rains in 2018 had already "loaded the dice even more," meteorologist Bryce Anderson noted on Twitter: A thawed ground, already saturated with water, wouldn't have been able to soak up much water anyway, he said
Tweet may have been deleted
On top of this confluence of extreme weather events, Earth's atmosphere is considerably different than it was a century ago. Specifically, the climate has warmed by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit), and due to simple physics, the warmer air is able to hold more water vapor. Specifically, for every 1 degree Celsius of warming, the air can hold seven percent more water.
That means more intense downpours. Between 1958 and 2012, the amount of rain in the heaviest rainfall events in the midwest shot up by 37 percent, according to U.S. government scientists.
Forthcoming research will reveal the role climate change played during these floods, though atmospheric scientists expect this same climate lever to bring more intense precipitation blasts to other parts of the nation in the near future, notably California.
On March 17, the National Weather Service (NWS) expected the Missouri River just south of Offutt Air Force Base to break record levels by a whopping four feet, noted CBS meteorologist Eric Fisher. The forecast turned out to be almost spot on.
"That's unreal for a river with some big floods in the past," Fisher wrote.
Watch MTV's Video Music Awards 2016 livestream2025-04-04 04:58
金鍾夫談隊員缺席訓練:有一部分是因為俱樂部的困難2025-04-04 04:56
儒尼奧爾 :能進球要感謝球隊醫療組 他們幫我更快複出2025-04-04 04:53
青島主帥:申花的人員厚度和實力都很強 我們全力以赴2025-04-04 04:33
Tesla's rumored P100D could make Ludicrous mode even more Ludicrous2025-04-04 04:25
主教練登場!鄭智領銜全華班戰國安 掛帥後首次先發2025-04-04 04:05
泰山時隔11年再奪中超冠軍 郝偉成隊史首位奪冠土帥2025-04-04 03:44
國安遭廣州隊複仇 禦林軍成送分童子連續4輪未贏球2025-04-04 03:04
Fake news reports from the Newseum are infinitely better than actual news2025-04-04 02:35
西蒙尼執教馬競10周年 他走上了穆裏尼奧的平庸之路?2025-04-04 02:24
Researchers create temporary tattoos you can use to control your devices2025-04-04 05:07
英媒:呂迪格大概率離隊 圖赫爾欽點巴黎王牌替他2025-04-04 04:58
72歲的溫格“重生”了 他要讓世界杯兩年辦一次2025-04-04 04:48
法媒抨擊拉莫斯:要麽養傷要麽停賽 關鍵詞是被遺忘2025-04-04 04:47
Major earthquake and multiple aftershocks rock central Italy2025-04-04 04:29
亞泰主帥:認真對待每場比賽 不會讓儒尼奧爾冒險出場2025-04-04 04:17
海港主帥:球隊進攻需改變和提高 盼隊中有10個呂文君2025-04-04 03:02
津門虎主帥:打好後麵的比賽 保級任務一定可以完成2025-04-04 02:37
These glasses hide a fitness tracker on your face2025-04-04 02:35
中超五佳球 :鄧涵文世界波 阿奇姆彭小角度破門(gif)2025-04-04 02:34