Texas, Oklahoma floods: Obama warns climate change is making disasters worse

U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that climate change is making extreme weather events worse, as Texas and Oklahoma suffer from severe storms and flooding that has reportedly claimed 37 lives.

Obama was visiting the National Hurricane Center in Florida as the annual storm season begins and said: "The best climate scientists in the world are telling us that extreme weather events like hurricanes are likely to become more powerful…When you combine stronger storms with rising seas, that's a recipe for more devastating floods.”

Texas and Oklahoma have been devastated by storms and floods this week with reports suggesting that at least 37 people have died with over 1,000 homes being damaged or destroyed.

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."

Obama said the disaster should serve as a reminder of the need to boost resiliency against natural disasters.

According to a report from climate data website Climate Central, heavy rainfall has increased dramatically in Texas since 1950 with the Northeast of the U.S. experiencing a 31 per cent increase in heavy downpours between the periods of 1950 to 1959 and 2005 to 2014.

The report said: "Climate scientists predict that the recent trends toward more heavy downpours will continue throughout this century. Climate models predict that if carbon emissions continue to increase as they have in recent decades, the types of downpours that used to happen once every 20 years could occur every 4 to 15 years by 2100."

A severe thunderstorm warning was again in place for central Oklahoma and Texas on Thursday.