【Anissa Kate the Widow XXX】

In 1948,Anissa Kate the Widow XXX Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington stationed the United States' long-range nuclear bombers at Offutt Air Force Base in eastern Nebraska, a location safe in the middle of the nation and well-insulated from the coast.

But 70 years later, the base -- now home to the U.S. Strategic Command which deters "catastrophic actions from adversaries and poses an immediate threat to any actor who questions U.S. resolve by demonstrating our capabilities" -- isn't safe from historic and record-setting floods.

Intense rains on top of the rapid melting of ample snow has inundated large swathes of Nebraska and a full one-third of the Offutt Air Force Base, including the headquarters building.

NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured before and after images of the flooding -- which the European Union Earth Observation Programme called "biblical." The overloaded river burgeoned in size, creeping into Offutt, neighborhoods, and farmlands.

Left:March 2018 Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Right:March 2019 Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A number of potent factors mixed to create what Offutt Air Force Base Commander Mike Manion has labeled a "1,000 year flood" -- meaning there's only a one in 1,000 chance of such an extreme event happening in any given year.

NASA noted that exceptionally cold Arctic blasts (from a wobbly polar vortex) preserved bounties of snow that soon rapidly melted when "unusually warm" March air produced massive amounts of runoff. Exacerbating matters, the winter's freeze made the ground less absorbent when extreme downpours then slammed the region.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: The Green New Deal: Historians weigh in on the immense scale required to pull it off

If that wasn't enough, big rains in 2018 had already "loaded the dice even more," meteorologist Bryce Anderson noted on Twitter: A thawed ground, already saturated with water, wouldn't have been able to soak up much water anyway, he said

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

On top of this confluence of extreme weather events, Earth's atmosphere is considerably different than it was a century ago. Specifically, the climate has warmed by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit), and due to simple physics, the warmer air is able to hold more water vapor. Specifically, for every 1 degree Celsius of warming, the air can hold seven percent more water.

That means more intense downpours. Between 1958 and 2012, the amount of rain in the heaviest rainfall events in the midwest shot up by 37 percent, according to U.S. government scientists.

Forthcoming research will reveal the role climate change played during these floods, though atmospheric scientists expect this same climate lever to bring more intense precipitation blasts to other parts of the nation in the near future, notably California.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

On March 17, the National Weather Service (NWS) expected the Missouri River just south of Offutt Air Force Base to break record levels by a whopping four feet, noted CBS meteorologist Eric Fisher. The forecast turned out to be almost spot on.

"That's unreal for a river with some big floods in the past," Fisher wrote.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Ever wonder how the universe might end?

---

• Games
• Science
• Tech
• Deals
• Social Good
• Life
• Digital Culture
• Shopping

• Every MCU movie villain ranked, from "Iron Man" to "Thunderbolts*"
• Watch: Jeff Bezos rushed by protester on stage at re:Mars conference
• Apple explains exactly how new iTunes
• Earth skyrocketed to a new, grim climate change landmark
• Bomb Envy
• Apple's new $5,000 monitor doesn't come with the $1,000 stand
• New Mac Pro is crazy powerful, and very expandable
• YouTube finally bans white supremacist content
• The cicadas aren't invading the U.S.
• Google Cloud's extended outage was a big headache for small stores

• Now you can scan to identify plants and dogs right in Snapchat
• Part 1: Nathaniel Rich’s Trousers by Clancy Martin
• In TikTok protest, witches cast spells to hex cops
• Making ‘Of Lamb’ by Thessaly La Force
• The Burden of Home by Aaron Gilbreath
• Reddit CEO to fill co
• 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for April 24
• A Week in Culture: Peter Terzian, Part 2 by Peter Terzian
• On Acknowledgements by Anna North
• Staff Picks: Harriet the Spy, Happy Fourth of July! by The Paris Review

• This is the fattest of the extremely fat bears
• Survey says Democrats and Republicans disagree about 'Handmaid's Tale'
• The Toronto Raptors got some basic Bay Area geography wrong on Twitter
• These are all the best alternatives to that Time cover
• NYT Connections hints and answers for May 18: Tips to solve 'Connections' #707.
• The Jonas Brothers doc 'Chasing Happiness' made me a fan: Review
• These are all the best alternatives to that Time cover
• 5 ways to be a more empathetic person
• Watch how an old Venus spacecraft tumbled before crashing to Earth
• The Obamas sent out their final White House Christmas card and Twitter is in love

• NYT Connections Sports Edition hints and answers for May 19: Tips to solve Connections #238
• Apple iTunes lives on for Windows PC users
• Photos on iOS is now smart enough to hide duplicates
• NYPD apologizes for Stonewall, doesn't apologize for still targeting trans people of color
• 10 Tech Predictions for 2017
• How to fight back when your face becomes an out
• Apple's macOS Catalina fixes the most annoying thing about Dark Mode
• A Hampton Inn in Utah started a Twitter war with J. Cole
• The Sound and the “Furious”
• These heartbreaking images reveal the dreams of refugees