A scene of devastation and a tragic toll. The catastrophic floods that swept through Texas, in the southern United States, left more than 100 dead, including 28 children. State Governor Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday, July 8, that 161 people were still missing. From a climate perspective, this tragedy was caused by a combination of exceptional factors, compounded by the impact of human-induced climate change.

Sudden floods were triggered by torrential rainfall that struck Kerr County, in the center of the state, early on Friday, July 4, the US Independence Day. Between 255 and 300 mm of rain fell between Thursday and Sunday, according to AccuWeather, the equivalent of more than four months' worth of rain. The vast majority of this fell in just three to six hours during the night from Thursday to Friday.

"100 billion gallons of water poured down – that's more than what flows over Niagara Falls in an entire day," said Hatim Sharif, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise by 8 meters in just 90 minutes. The flow of this river, whose banks are home to Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer camp, exploded from 2.7 cubic meters per second (m³/s) to 4,700 m³/s.

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