Key Highlights
- As a result of the nonstop rain, mudslides tore through communities, washing away homes and stranding families on rooftops as they waited for rescue. The bouts of heavy rain have caused flooding beyond Washington, spreading into British Columbia, where landslides and flooding forced even more people to evacuate and shut down several major highways leading to Vancouver. Washington state flood waters receding after days of rescues and evacuationsRead moreWhile atmospheric rivers are not uncommon in the Pacific north-west this time of year, these back-to-back systems are unusually potent and are causing cross-border problems in the US and Canada. What are atmospheric rivers and why are they getting worse?As water flows through rivers on land, atmospheric rivers are large channels in the atmosphere that transport water vapor from the tropics and are essential to the world’s annual water supplies.
- In the Pacific north-west, atmospheric rivers typically occur during the fall and winter, bringing water-laden air from areas around Hawaii to the west coast. Meteorologists say the severity of this specific weather event is due in part to moisture from even farther in the western Pacific near the Philippines. At their most beneficial, these systems can bring much-needed rain to drought-prone areas, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
- In extreme cases, such as the recent deluge over Washington and Oregon, heavy rains from these atmospheric rivers can bring devastating floods and mudslides. While most of the American public has focused on the swelling rivers and damage that floods left behind in western Washington, neighbors to the north in Canada’s British Columbia face their own problems. And some experts believe the US should take action to prevent potential flooding across the border. Can Canada rely on the US to make infrastructure upgrades to stop cross-border flooding?As Washington’s Nooksack River flooded this week, sending a surge of water north over the border into British Columbia, some Canadians were haunted by memories of flooding that devastated the neighboring community in 2021. Four years ago, when the Nooksack River overflowed, pushing a large amount of water north into the Sumas prairie in Abbotsford, BC, it triggered a record-breaking flood event that forced people to evacuate, shut down major highways and caused over a billion dollars in damages, as the Canadian Press reports. While the Nooksack River does not cross the Canadian border, when flooded, the river’s water does overflow into areas near the border, posing a major flood risk to Canada.
- According to a Globe and Mail report in 2021, Canadian politicians and engineers had urged government officials in Washington state to invest in flood-prevention infrastructure at the Nooksack River to address potential threats. Canadian flood risk researcher Charlotte Milne told the CBC in a report published on Friday that the US has been slow to take action to address cross-border f.
