As the past few weeks have shown, flash floods can develop very quickly in both rural and urban areas, with mild to catastrophic impacts. That’s part of why flash floods are so critical to study, according to Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a meteorologist and senior staff researcher at the Columbia Climate School’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness. “Some parts of the world will never see potential disasters like wildfires or tropical cyclones, but there are very few areas at zero risk of flash floods,” says Kruczkiewicz. And because of the wide variability in potential impact, “it demands extra sensitivity in terms of how you communicate risk, as a run-of-the mill flash flood is very different than a 30-foot wall of water.”

Kruczkiewicz’s current research focuses on extreme weather events such as flash floods, and the application of climate and weather data and forecasting to reduce disaster risk and facilitate humanitarian action. In the following discussion, Kruczkiewicz talks about why the Texas floods were so devastating, how warning systems need to consider very different populations—e.g., recreation-seekers vs. locals—and how we might integrate both technology and local knowledge to avoid such tragedy in the future.

By Adrienne Day. Read the full article here.