Warmer air holds more moisture, which means that storms can drop more rain than they used to. That’s been known since the earliest of worrying about climate change and it is happening already, with “extreme precipitation” becoming the norm.
Huge rainstorms can overwhelm sewer systems; all that rains fills up the underground pipes, bringing raw sewage to the surface. Yuck. Grist has a good story about how Boston and New York are taking different approaches to the problem. Boston is building more pipes to separate out sewage from stormwater systems, while New York is trying to use green infrastructure to reduce the effect of rain in the first place.
It’s an interesting contrast: the full story is here.
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