Last month, heavy rains fell on melting snowpack in and around Yellowstone National Park, resulting in widespread flooding, mudslides, and damage to infrastructure.

The US Geological Survey described the storm, which forced the evacuation of visitors and closed parts of the park indefinitely, as a 1 in 500-year event.

“The magnitude and rate of change right now are way beyond anything we humans have seen.”

“We used to say that our best guess for tomorrow’s weather is what happened yesterday. We can’t say that anymore,” says Liz Hadly, professor of environmental biology at Stanford University, faculty director of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, and a longtime Yellowstone resident.

“The magnitude and rate of change right now are way beyond anything we humans have seen. We’re pushing the envelope of human knowledge,” Hadly says.

Here, she explains the flooding event and how it fits into the context of global climate change:

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