Torrential rain swamped streets across Palm Beach County this week, leaving cars stranded and forcing rescue teams to evacuate residents as floodwaters rose. Footage filmed recently shows several cars partially submerged along flooded streets, while rescue teams transport residents in dinghies and boats. Pickup trucks are also seen driving past with dinghies in the back. West Palm Beach recorded 7.39 inches of rain on November 2, smashing a daily record set in 1925.
The city received 11.67 inches over two days, overwhelming parts of its drainage system and leaving roads impassable. Earlier this week, emergency crews also evacuated 71 people from flooded neighbourhoods in Riviera Beach. Authorities urged motorists to avoid flooded roads as crews worked to clear drains and assist affected communities. (Source: Ruptly)
Press TV reports record rainfall in Palm Beach County, with cars stranded, 71 people evacuated in Riviera Beach and a daily rainfall record from 1925 broken. The figures are concrete and nothing in the report misleads about the event. The article never says that warming makes heavy rainfall like this more frequent or more severe, which leaves the record-breaking downpour without its documented context.
Leaves out the climate link
Minor
“smashing a daily record set in 1925”
Why this matters
The words "smashing a daily record set in 1925" present the downpour as record-breaking extreme rainfall, and the article says nothing anywhere about why such events are happening more often.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away with a freak weather event that has no link to any wider change in the climate.
The context
The documented record shows that human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more intense. No coverage or study in the material attributes this particular storm to warming, so the gap is background rather than a misstatement of the event. That is why it is minor.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “warming”.