Persistent impact of spring floods on crop loss in U.S. Midwest

Climate extremes threaten global food security, and compound events, such as late spring heavy warmer rainfall over snow subsequent flooding, exacerbate this vulnerability. Despite frequent occurrences in recent years, a quantitative understanding of the weather events' impacts remains elusive. Here, we use Synthetic Aperture Radar data from Sentinel-1 normalized difference vegetation index MODIS satellites to map 2019 U.S. Midwest flood extent evaluate its impact on crop loss. We find statistically significant association between flooded counties those with plant greenup delay, while correlation area percent amount green-up delay weak, albeit reliable. An analysis stream gage time series loss records shows that during past ?70 ?43% large discharges are associated widespread also an increase streams' discharge frequency magnitude across Midwest, indicating possibility future due flooding. This study highlights importance Earth-observing satellite for developing climate adaptation resilience plans.