"Generational Flooding" Across Mid-South States; What Will They Do As Warming Makes Things Steadily Worse?
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After a four-day bombardment of storms, many areas along this stretch of the lower Mississippi Valley absorbed as much as 15 inches of rain. At least 10 people died across Tennessee, most of them tornado victims. In Memphis, the surging Wolf River inundated the greenway, in some spots coming inches shy of overflowing onto the road and toward neighborhoods. Still, the area avoided a worse scenario. But the latest deluge spurred concerns about growing risks of extreme rainfall in Tennessee and across the South. Some preparations done after past storms may have helped lessen the impact of the most recent disaster, but experts know more will be needed.
Tennessee is part of a swath of the South experiencing wetter storms fueled by rising temperatures and moisture from warming water in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Over the past decade, the state has experienced some of its wettest years, with rains driving devastating flooding. After extreme floods in 2011 and 2021, various solutions and flood-prevention efforts were proposed — but local experts and residents say some have yet to come to fruition. What happens when the next storm is worse?
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The state has had an official climate office only since 2021 — something East Tennessee State University professor Andrew Joyner had been working to build since 2016. In those intervening years, Tennessee experienced three of its wettest years on record — from 2018 through 2020. In 2021, months after Joyner became the official state climatologist, a torrential flooding event in Waverly, Tennessee, killed at least 21 people. In 2022 and 2023, drought wracked the state, dropping the Mississippi to record-low levels around Memphis and along other sections. Then, extreme flooding returned last year as mountainous eastern Tennessee bore much of the brunt of Hurricane Helene’s deluge.
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Some in Tennessee have been pushing for expanded efforts to address rising risks, for when the water levels rise to dangerous levels. Joyner, the state climatologist, has been pressing for development of a mesonet — a network of weather sensors that can improve data collection and, in turn, weather forecasting. The mesonet would cost about $3 million up front and about $1 million per year to maintain, Joyner said. The money is included in the budget that Gov. Bill Lee (R) proposed for the fiscal year starting July 1, after years of Joyner and others lobbying for the technology. If state legislators approve that spending in their session scheduled to end April 25, the mesonet will become reality.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/04/08/tennessee-south-rains-floods-preparation/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Horrific mess.
Not sure shat they hope to do in western TN to prevent future floods as the land is so low... 
