Yellowstone National Park is currently closed to visitors due to severe flooding along all of the Park's streams, especially the Yellowstone River. Rapid snow melt (due to a recent heat wave) combined with torrential rain from thunderstorms are responsible for the devastation.
Of course, such events have occurred over the centuries, molding the landscape that we observe today, but these disastrous floods are likely to increase as the climate warms. Indeed, there is little doubt that the current deluge is a reflection of our changing climate, however reluctant many Americans are to accept that fact.
While private property has been destroyed beyond the Park and many visitors will be forced to change their vacation plans, wild residents of Yellowstone have also surely been affected. The young and the old, too frail to escape the floodwaters, have likely succumbed. "The Circle of Life," some might suggest, but a circle distorted by human activity.
