ABC’s Stephanopoulos & mainstream media accused of presenting ‘grotesque misinformation’ on Texas flood tragedy

Grotesque misinformation.

NWS in Texas had extra staff on duty and did their jobs admirably, as always. https://t.co/phmVip21WO

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) July 6, 2025

Media entities wonder why public trust in them has never been lower. pic.twitter.com/HhWabQWCbg

— Joseph Toomey (@JosephEToomey) July 7, 2025

The NWS office in Austin / San Antonio issued a flood watch for Kerr County 12 HOURS in advance, then issued a flash flood warning some three hours before the Guadalupe River began to flood. You have no clue what you’re talking about. pic.twitter.com/jZStrhSq3r

— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 6, 2025

They had extra staffing on hand day of event as flood watch was issued in afternoon. There’s limited cell service along the river. There is also a history of false flash flood advisories or advisories for minor events which creates complacency. None of this is Trump admin issue

— Hanson Brothers (@herefishie123) July 6, 2025

Here are some facts for you.

There has been no statistically significant trend in the annual maximum one-day precipitation (Rx1day) in Texas since 1895. The least squares regression yields an R² value of 0.027, indicating that only 2.7% of the variance in Rx1day is explained by… https://t.co/GU8ZjNAjJS pic.twitter.com/koHiXOWGUR

— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 6, 2025

I wasted money on my degree?

Pretty sure you didn’t want to open that can of worms, son.

Here is what the IPCC says about floods in their sixth assessment report.

With respect to fluvial (river) floods,

️ “ ℎ … https://t.co/GU8ZjNAjJS pic.twitter.com/V4QbSVpyTb

— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 6, 2025

The amount of anti-science nonsense I have seen about the Texas flooding from the left and the right in the last 36 hours is giving me a headache.

No, it was not driven by climate change (river floods have actually decreased in frequency and magnitude there).

No, the deaths of…

— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 6, 2025

Let’s clarify two misconceptions:

1️⃣ To people on the right, there have indeed been job cuts at the NWS. In fact, there was an 11% reduction in force (RIF) back in the spring. At least 560 meteorologists’ positions were axed by the administration, although most were probationary…

— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 6, 2025

‘Exactly What We Would Expect’: Climate Scientists Weigh in on Deadly Texas Flooding – “It’s not a question of whether climate change played a role—it’s only a question of how much,” said one expert.

Climate scientists do concur that human-caused global heating is causing stronger and more frequent extreme weather events including flooding.

“This kind of record-shattering rain (caused by slow-moving torrential thunderstorms) event is *precisely* that which is increasing the fastest in a warming climate,” Swain wrote in a statement. “So it’s not a question of whether climate change played a role—it’s only a question of how much.”

As Jeff Masters and Bob Henson wrote Saturday for Yale Climate Connections:

Many studies have confirmed that human-caused climate change is making the heaviest short-term rainfall events more intense, largely by warming the world’s oceans and thus sending more water vapor into the atmosphere that can fuel heavy rain events. Sea surface temperatures this week have been as much as 1°F below the 1981-2010 average for early July in the western Gulf [of Mexico] and Caribbean, but up to 1°F above average in the central Gulf. Long-term human-caused warming made the latter up to 10 times more likely, according to the Climate Shift Index from Climate Central.

“The tragic events in Texas are exactly what we would expect in our hotter, climate-changed, world,” Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysics and climate hazards at University College London, said Saturday. “There has been an explosion in extreme weather in recent years, including more devastating flash floods caused by slow-moving, wetter, storms, that dump exceptional amounts of rain over small areas across a short time.”

Instead of taking action to combat the planetary emergency, the Trump administration is ramping up fossil fuel production while waging war on clean energy and climate initiatives. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by Trump on Friday slashes the tax credits for electric vehicles and other renewable technologies including wind and solar energy that were a cornerstone of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.