Biden, Kentucky & Climate Change

In the last edition I posted White House warns of ‘intensifying impacts of climate change’ as Biden tours flood-hit Kentucky which told of Biden and his crew visiting Kentucky and where his spokesman said. "The floods in Kentucky...are yet another reminder of the intensifying and accelerating impacts of climate change..."

I later added this to the post: 

So I got to thinking, if this was something new or unique for Kentucky, then one might conclude it was due to recent changes in the environment. However, if you look up the history of flooding in Kentucky you will find the following:

1927

The Mountain Eagle newspaper in Whitesburg reported in its June 2, 1927 edition that a cloudburst a few days before had caused flooding that killed 16 people in the county, with others still missing. “Property damage cannot be estimated. Homes are destroyed, livestock and poultry drowned, and whole farms practically ruined,” the story said. “The fury of the flood far exceeded anything that has ever hit this area in its history.”

January-February 1937 

Rain fell almost every day in January 1937 in the Ohio River valley, totaling almost four times the normal amount, pushing the river above flood stage by late in the month. There was flooding on the river from Pittsburgh to Illinois, but Louisville was hit the hardest. At one point nearly 70% of the city was covered by water, forcing 175,000 people to leave their homes. “The worst catastrophe in the history of Kentucky has fallen upon our people in the valleys of the rivers and streams of Kentucky and the Ohio River,” Gov. Keen Johnson said in a statement, according to a history of the flood by the Kentucky National Guard. “Thousands upon thousands of families have been driven from their homes without food or clothing. 

July 1939

A cloudburst overnight on July 4 and 5 created “catastrophic flash flooding” in Eastern Kentucky as water cascaded off the hillsides, according to a National Weather Service report.The U.S. Geological Survey, which studied the flood, said that while reliable measurements were not available, it estimated based on descriptions by residents that rainfall exceeded 12 inches and may have approached 20 inches at the center of the storm.There were estimates that the water in Frozen Creek, in Breathitt County, rose 20 feet in 10 minutes, the USGS report said.

January — February57

The massive flood of early 1957 in Eastern Kentucky and nearby areas of Appalachia held the record in many spots for decades.Rain fell nearly continuously in the area for around 60 hours from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, according to the National Weather Service. Flooding and landslides destroyed or blocked dozens of roads, and food shortages developed because of damage to stores, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said in a report.

And so it goes. Seems to me it is quite a stretch to assert a direct link between temperatures and the most recent flooding event.