Climate change has doubled the risk of Central Europe-style floods
A new report by World Weather Attribution has revealed that climate change has made extreme downpours like the one that caused devastating floods in central Europe this month twice as likely to occur.
The study highlights the urgent need for policymakers to take action against global warming.
The recent flooding, described as the worst to hit central Europe in at least two decades, claimed 24 lives and left a trail of destruction in its wake. Towns were inundated with mud and debris, buildings were damaged, and bridges collapsed, resulting in repair costs estimated to be in the billions of dollars.
The international group of scientists found that the four-day rainfall brought by Storm Boris was the heaviest ever recorded in the region.
Their analysis concluded that climate change had not only doubled the likelihood of such extreme precipitation events but also increased their intensity by 7%.
Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and co-author of the study, emphasized the connection between fossil fuel-driven warming and these devastating floods.
She warned that until renewable energy replaces oil, gas, and coal, storms like Boris will continue to unleash even heavier rainfall, leading to economy-crippling floods.
The report explained that while the specific combination of weather patterns causing Storm Boris was unusual, climate change is making such storms more intense and more frequent. In the current climate, with 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, such a storm is expected to occur once every 100 to 300 years on average.
However, the study projects a grim future if global warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which is anticipated by the 2050s. Under these conditions, similar storms would result in at least 5% more rain and occur about 50% more frequently than they do now.
This report serves further confirms the tangible impacts of climate change and the critical need for immediate and decisive action to mitigate its effects and build resilience against future extreme weather events.