Figure 4.3

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Lesley Jantarasami

This figure appears in chapter 4 of the The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment report.

Composite map of floods associated with landfalling hurricanes over the past 31 years, based on stream gauge data. The Flood Ratio (Q) refers to maximum hurricane-related flood peaks compared to 10-year flood peaks (expected to occur, on average, once every 10 years and corresponds to the 90th percentile of the flood peak distribution) calculated for the same area. See Villarini et al. 2014 for a detailed description of how Q values are calculated.7f29d739-b00c-4140-a922-be8d211ecc5e Q values between 0.6 and 1 (light blue and yellow) generally indicate minor to moderate flooding, while values above 1 (orange and red) generally indicate major flooding larger than the 10-year flood peak. The dark gray areas of the map represent the extent of the 500-km buffer around the center of circulation of the hurricanes included during the study period (the light gray areas of the map fall outside of the study area). Figure 4.3 shows that hurricanes are important contributors to flooding in the eastern United States, as well as large areas of the central United States. Land use/land cover properties and soil moisture conditions are also important factors for flooding. (Figure source: adapted from Villarini et al. 2014)7f29d739-b00c-4140-a922-be8d211ecc5e

Copyright protected. Obtain permission from the original figure source.

The time range for this figure is January 01, 1981 (00:00 AM) to December 31, 2011 (23:59 PM).

This figure was created on January 10, 2014.

The spatial range for this figure is N/A° to N/A° latitude, and N/A° to N/A° longitude.

Provenance

This figure was derived from North Atlantic tropical cyclones and U.S. flooding

References :

• North Atlantic tropical cyclones and U.S. flooding (7f29d739)