Nathan Kelley
First and foremost, the author brings up the processes by which the flooding in Nashville is occurring. He states that there was a jet stream that stopped over Nashville and began to dump water vapor brought in from the warm Atlantic waters. This brings us back to many aspects of geology. These aspects range from the weather systems themselves, to the hydrologic cycle that provided the water that the weather systems carried.
Secondly, the author talks about the gradual warming of the earth. This warming has a symbiotic relationship with the particles that exist within our atmosphere, the temperatures of our air and oceans, as well as the frequency at which we see extreme weather systems like hurricanes and tornados. As Meehl states in the article, “Picture a baseball player on steroids…This baseball player steps up to the plate and hits a home run. It’s impossible to say if he hit that home run because of the steroids, or whether he would have hit it anyway. The drugs just made it more likely.”
Finally, the author hits close to home when he speaks about the extreme droughts that Texas farmers faced just a few years ago. While also tied to extreme weather systems, these droughts also affect the soil content of the farmers land. The previous year’s crops would not have been as strong because of the lack of rain, thus fewer nutrients would be returned to the soil for the following year’s crops. Obviously, the weather patterns and events were of