2025 has become 'the year of the flood.' Why is it raining so much?

USA Today

6 days ago

If you think this summer has been wetter and rainier than usual, you're right.
Daily tropical downpours, deadly flash floods and crushing humidity: If you think summer 2025 has been wetter and rainier than usual, you're right.
"2025 has been the year of the flood," said WPLG-TV meteorologist Michael Lowry in a July 15 email to USA TODAY. "The tragic July 4th flooding in central Texas – the deadliest flash flood in at least 50 years in the U.S. – punctuated what's been an especially bad year for flooding across the country."
In fact, "so far in 2025, National Weather Service offices have issued more flood warnings than any other year on record dating back to 1986," Lowry said.
In addition to the catastrophic flooding in Texas, life-threatening flooding and record rainfall has been reported in New Mexico, North Carolina and other East Coast states this month.
Why is this? What's going on?
It's the humidity
"In general, atmospheric moisture in the areas that have seen the most flooding this year has been historically high," Lowry told USA TODAY.
"We can look at dew point temperature as a gauge for how soupy it's been," he said. "The dew point temperature has been much higher than average across parts of Texas and over nearly the entire eastern third of the U.S."
So why has it been so humid? The main reason is due to the unusually warm waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf this season. "The subtropical waters around the U.S., and especially off the Eastern Seaboard, have warmed considerably, and the stronger flow out of the south and east around the Bermuda High has swept all of that muggy air from offshore much farther inland," Lowry said.
Indeed, the Bermuda/Azores high has been abnormally strong so far this year, and clockwise flow around that area of high pressure pulls moisture from the ocean and Gulf directly into the United States.
"So the bottom line is higher humidity levels from warmer waters around the U.S. have contributed to the record flooding we've seen so far this year," Lowry said.
Wet spring also set the stage
In addition, AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok told USA TODAY that the wet spring in the East also set the stage for the soggy summer that's followed. He said the sodden ground from heavy rain in April and May has contributed to the flooding we've been seeing in summer.
Furthermore, Pastelok said there's been a lack of potent cold fronts sweeping down from Canada, which act to reduce humidity levels. He did say that a cold front in mid-July, the first one in quite a while, will at least temporarily help ease the crushing humidity in the Midwest and parts of the Northeast later this week.
DC deluges
One city that's seen a high number of flash floods this summer is Washington, D.C., which has seen an unusual number of weather alerts related to rain and flooding this year.
In a typical year, the weather service office in the DC-Baltimore area issues one or two moderate risk rainfall outlooks. This July alone, there have already been three: July 1, 9 and 14, CNN reported.
"In the past month, there have only been seven days when the DC-Baltimore area wasn't under any excessive rainfall threat," CNN said.
What about climate change?
Climate change can affect the intensity and frequency of precipitation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which said that "warmer oceans increase the amount of water that evaporates into the air. When more moisture-laden air moves over land or converges into a storm system, it can produce more intense precipitation — for example, heavier rain and snow storms."
Hourly rainfall rates have grown heavier in nearly 90% of large US cities since 1970, according to a recent study from the nonprofit research group Climate Central.
(This story has been updated to correct a misspelling/typo.)