Looks like we are getting solid El Niño conditions. NASA is saying that this is the cause for the flooding in Texas and it matches up with prior El Niños.
Last ski season sucked for everyone - looks like this winter will be just as bad. Good news is that California will get rain again - maybe this time, they will build some water storage - i.e. dams like Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.
From NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:
Severe Flooding Hits Central Texas, Oklahoma
A stagnant upper-air pattern that spread numerous storms and heavy rains from central Texas up into Oklahoma has resulted in record flooding for parts of the Lone Star State. One of the hardest hit areas was in Hays County Texas south of Austin where the Blanco River rose rapidly and set a new record crest at over 40 feet, 13 feet above flood stage, following a night of very heavy rain in the area, with over 12 inches reported locally in a short period of time, in an area already wet from previous storms. The combination of high pressure over the southeastern United States and a persistent southerly flow of moisture up out of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a deep upper-level trough that was slow to leave the central and southern Rockies set the stage for persistent widespread storms across the Southern Plains from the eastern half of Texas, through Oklahoma, and into southern Kansas.
More at the site - delightfully missing is any comment about Global Warming. Looks like NASA is seeing the writing on the wall (and the funding cuts to one particular office)
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