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  • NEWS FEATURE

Attack of the extreme floods

As the oceans rise, researchers aim to forecast where severe storms will trigger the worst flooding.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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Large waves crash against houses near Boston

Rare events such as the ‘bomb cyclone’ that battered the US northeast in January are hitting more often. Credit: Scott Eisen/Getty

On 8 September 2017, Thomas Wahl checked in at London’s Gatwick Airport for a nearly-empty flight to Orlando, Florida. A coastal engineer at the University of Central Florida, Wahl knew what was heading for his hometown: category-5 Hurricane Irma, which had already battered much of the Caribbean. He got on the plane anyway. “It was me, the pilot and a few Disney tourists who just didn’t care,” he says.

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Nature 555, 156-158 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02745-0

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