{"id":372534,"date":"2025-03-28T10:46:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=372534"},"modified":"2025-03-28T10:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:46:57","slug":"climate-centrals-urban-rainfall-claims-are-all-wet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=372534","title":{"rendered":"Climate Central\u2019s Urban Rainfall Claims Are All Wet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In its March 26, 2025, article titled \u201cHeavier Rainfall Rates in U.S. Cities<\/em><\/a>,\u201d Climate Central (CC) claims that \u201cClimate change is supercharging the water cycle, bringing heavier rainfall extremes and related flood risks across the U.S.\u201d This conclusion is misleading at best, and scientifically irresponsible at worst. The evidence, when properly examined, points to alternative, well-known meteorological causes of localized rainfall increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CC claims that, \u201cas the atmosphere warms with climate change, it can hold more water vapor, leading to heavier downpours\u2014especially in urban areas.\u201d This is easily explained by local urban meteorological factors unrelated to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, the CC article commits a common logical fallacy in climate reporting: correlation mistaken for causation. Yes, some cities have recorded increases in intense rainfall over recent decades, but that\u2019s not the smoking gun for anthropogenic-driven climate change<\/a> as CC would have you believe. Rather, Climate at a Glance<\/em><\/a> provides a far more comprehensive and nuanced assessment of precipitation trends, showing that nationwide rainfall in the U.S. has not<\/strong> increased in an alarming or unprecedented manner. In fact, the entry on U.S. Precipitation<\/a> shows that while total precipitation has slightly increased over the last century, there\u2019s no consistent trend of intensifying rainfall that matches the hysteria being promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, CC completely ignores the well-documented Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect<\/a> in their article. Cities are warmer than surrounding rural areas due to the heat-retaining properties of asphalt, concrete, and reduced vegetation\u2014this is a basic principle of meteorology that\u2019s been acknowledged for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the leading higher rainfall cities CC mentions is Reno, NV., citing a 37% increase in rainfall since 1970 for the city. A simple experiment, done by Anthony Watts in 2008<\/a>, conclusively demonstrated the strong UHI signature of the city, as seen below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Warmer city surfaces create more localized convection, which can in turn drive more thunderstorm and precipitation activity over urban cores. Ironically, CC has an entire section of their website dedicated to UHI<\/a> in U.S. cities, none of which appear in their article claiming climate change is \u201csupercharging the water cycle\u201d and rainfall for cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With CC ignoring the UHI factor in rainfall enhancement\u2014in an article specifically focused on urban rainfall trends<\/em>\u2014is not just an oversight. It\u2019s obvious journalistic and scientific malpractice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s another major mechanism at play here that CC sidesteps entirely: urban air pollution<\/a>. Cities are loaded with particulate matter from vehicles, industry, and heating systems. These particles serve as condensation nuclei<\/a>\u2014tiny seeds upon which water vapor condenses, forming clouds and enhancing precipitation. This isn\u2019t new or controversial science. A 2004 study in Nature<\/em> titled \u201cEnhanced precipitation due to aerosol effects\u201d<\/a> documented how increased aerosols can enhance cloud formation and intensify rainfall, particularly in urban environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the American Meteorological Society has long recognized this phenomenon. The AMS Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology<\/em> published a paper in 2007 on \u201cUrban Influences on Cloud and Precipitation\u201d<\/a>, highlighting how cities can create their own microclimates that influence local rainfall, both in amount and intensity. None of these well-established mechanisms rely on global climate change to explain city-specific rainfall trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s also not forget the role of cloud seeding<\/a> in weather modification\u2014a practice that intentionally introduces particulates into the atmosphere to enhance rainfall. The fact that urban areas do this unintentionally through pollution suggests that rainfall trends in these areas are far from purely \u201cnatural\u201d or \u201cclimate-change\u201d induced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CC\u2019s flawed analysis ignores basic well-known urban meteorology. CC\u2019s article is therefore a misguided narrative driven by model speculation. Their narrative\u2014that climate change is making U.S. city rainstorms worse\u2014is built on selective data, conveniently ignoring both the well-established Urban Heat Island effect and the rainfall-enhancing role of aerosols. It\u2019s like blaming fever on the weather while ignoring the infection causing it. By omitting these critical factors, they present an oversimplified, alarmist view that serves political ends rather than scientific truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of shoddy research for media consumption undermines public trust in climate science. CC claims to be an authority, yet their work shows a consistent pattern: cherry-pick data, ignore contradictory evidence, and blame everything on humans using fossil fuels causing climate change. Real science considers all<\/em> variables, especially ones as obvious as localized urban heating and pollution. Until Climate Central acknowledges these fundamental factors, they\u2019re not reporting science\u2014they\u2019re spinning a fake news narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its March 26, 2025, article titled \u201cHeavier Rainfall Rates in U.S. Cities,\u201d Climate Central (CC) claims that \u201cClimate change is supercharging the water cycle, bringing heavier rainfall extremes and related flood risks across the U.S.\u201d This conclusion is misleading at best, and scientifically irresponsible at worst. The evidence, when properly examined, points to alternative, well-known meteorological causes of localized rainfall increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":372539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691834120,691818056,691834123,691834121,691834122,691823002,691821374],"class_list":{"0":"post-372534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-central-cc","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-flood-risk","11":"tag-heavier-rainfall","12":"tag-model-speculation","13":"tag-u-s-cities","14":"tag-urban-heat-island-uhi-effect","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/063_1590113874.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1yUC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":374792,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374792","url_meta":{"origin":372534,"position":0},"title":"False, Axios, Atlanta\u2019s Rainfall Increase Isn\u2019t Attributable to Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In its April 7, 2025, article titled\u00a0Heavier rain is becoming more common in Atlanta, Axios Atlanta claims that \u201cclimate change is causing heavier downpours in Atlanta\u201d citing data supplied by Climate Central (CC). 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