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Record rainfall in Yellowstone National Park over the weekend led to heavy flooding that destroyed homes, roads, and bridges, and caused the evacuation of 10,000 visitors and the closure of all park entrances.
The storm that caused the flooding and mudslides began with 2-3 inches of rain over the weekend that combined with warm temperatures that melted more than 5 inches of late spring snow, creating a major flooding event. Park superintendent Cam Sholly described the situation as a “thousand-year event, whatever that means these days. They seem to be happening more and more frequently.”
Marshall Shepherd, director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia and former president of the American Meteorological Society explained that climate change is causing the water cycle to accelerate, fueled by earlier snowmelt combined with increasingly intense rainfall. “We can no longer talk about this as a future tense, that this is what's going to happen and this is what climate change is going to do for flooding in Montana. It’s here,” said Shepherd, voicing a fear expressed by others that this might be a taste of what climate change has in store for Yellowstone and other national parks going forward.
The entire park will remain closed for at least a week while officials assess the damage. Some portions of the park are likely to remain closed into the fall "We will not know timing of the park’s reopening until flood waters subside and we're able to assess the damage throughout the park," Sholly said in a statement.
The closure of the park is dealing a major economic blow to adjacent gateway communities counting on a rebound in summer tourism for the park's 150th anniversary following two years of COVID-19 restrictions. Bill Berg, a commissioner in nearby Park County, Montana described the impact to Gardiner, Montana, an area that had just started to recover from the past two years, saying, “It’s a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism, and this is going to be a pretty big hit. They’re looking to try to figure out how to hold things together.”
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You don't need to pass legislation in order to reform the federal fossil fuel program. Secretary Haaland and President Biden have the authority they need under existing law to bring that program into alignment with their own climate pledges and global climate goals.”
