Texas and Oklahoma flooding linked to climate change

Devastating storms have hit the southern U.S. states of Texas and Oklahoma in recent days, bringing deadly floods, and experts have been linking the weather pattern to climate change.

The heavy rain and severe flooding has left at least 16 people dead and has damaged or destroyed about 1,000 homes.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Monday: "This is the biggest flood this area of Texas has ever seen. It is absolutely massive - the relentless tsunami-type power of this wave of water."

According to the federal government’s recent National Climate Assessment, the annual amount of precipitation that fell during the heaviest 1 per cent of rainfall in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, was up nearly 20 per cent in the last decade compared to the average between 1901 and 1960.

In its latest report, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that heavy rainfall in North America and Europe has become increasingly frequent and severe.

The IPCC report warned that it is "very likely" that severe precipitation events will get worse in the coming century.

The flooding in Texas and Oklahoma is also being partly attributed to this year's El Nino conditions, and some meteorologists expect this to bring heavy rainfall to parts of drought-stricken California later this year.

Experts in the U.S. have noted that it's impossible to say whether individual extreme weather events are a direct result of climate change.

Texas and Oklahoma have both been hit by intensifying drought and flooding event, although politicians in both states have denied climate change.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 70 per cent of Texas is currently in no drought at all and only a year ago, 65 per cent of the state was in either "extreme" or "exceptional" drought.

In 2011, Texas suffered its worst drought year in history with a drought emergency being declared and then renewed in 2013.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) aid that Texas “has yet to formally address climate change preparedness…Between more intense rainstorms and sea level rise, flooding will only increase if we don’t address climate change.”