Fire and Flood Continue

Regardless of whether or not the extreme weather this particular year is the result of climate instability, it is what we should eventually expect. The NASA Earth Observatory page has some great images of the ongoing events, n particular, the record-breaking floods on the Missouri River and the drought-related fires in the SW. These two events are also happen to be ongoing examples of the far-reaching effects of these extreme weather.

Flooded Missouri River, (click for larger image).

The Missouri floods are threatening vital infrastructure, including nuclear power plants. The berm surrounding the Fort Calhoun plant has collapsed, though the reactors were fortunately shutdown. Nevertheless this will have an impact on when the plants can start generating again.

Fires in New Mexico (click for larger image).

Meanwhile the Las Conchas fire (above) threatens the national lab in Los Alamos, forcing it to close and 100 nearby residents to be evacuated.  Any natural disasters can have unexpected and far-reaching consequences, as they become more common the impacts will pile up.