But the most ominous of all, is the risk of an upcoming compound flooding, which is what scientists would call a “triple threat”, since it would entail strong storm surges, continually rising sea levels up to a height of four feet at the least, and high amounts of rainfall.

The study measured the frequency of extreme high tide events and precipitation records for 30 different cities.

One particular scenario the researchers studied for New York, an nearly 4-foot storm surge (1.2 meters) combined with 5 inches of rain (12.7 centimeters), is now anticipated once every 42 years, compared with the once-in-a-century expectation in the 1940s.

The number of coastal flooding events driven by a combination of both storm surge and heavy precipitation has increased significantly over the past century for many major U.S. coastal cities, mainly as a result of long-term sea-level rise, according to a report published online this week in Nature Climate Change. Researchers embarked on a mission to figure out which factors contribute to flooding, as this the essential information that could help in finding the flawless area to rebuild a city.

Why is there increased urban flooding over time? Overall, the cities located along the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast are at higher risk of compound flooding than cities located on the Pacific coast.

This means that even if cities such as New York don’t get a lot of rainfall, they can still be put under water. In fact, they maintained that global warming sea level increases accelerated this problem all the more. By recognizing the elements involved in simultaneous (or compound) disasters occurred, they found that a significant connection exists between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coastlines.

The drastic impacts of climate change is slowly and increasingly being felt, especially in United States.

The research team also identified three key compound flooding mechanisms: elevated water levels in estuarine regions; storm surge flooding that worsens with heavy rainfall and; moderate storm surge that blocks or slows down drainage.

A recent study has taken a look closely at what would happen when rainfall combines with storm surges.

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common, and disastrous floods, counting among them, are threatening the U.S. coastal counties more than before. Seemingly, storm surge weather patterns lead to high precipitation.