Floods in Central Europe and Italy, like those caused by storm Boris, have become more likely and intense due to climate change. According to scientists at World Weather Attribution, global warming has doubled the likelihood of torrential rains, with events like Boris damaging infrastructure and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
The floods that hit Central Europe as well as the inundations that affected Emilia Romagna first and the Tuscany and Veneto thenare increasingly frequent and more intense.
In particular, according to a group of scientists from the World Weather Attribution the torrential rains that caused the floods this September have become twice as likely due to human-induced global warming.
Storms like Boris increasingly likely
Between September 12th and 16th, the Boris storm It has hit several countries hard, including Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. It even reached Italy.
Everywhere he has provoked torrential rains that swept away homes, destroyed bridges and damaged infrastructureThousands of people have been forced to evacuate, while the material damage is incalculable.
According to the WWA, global warming is now leaving “obvious footprints” on extreme weather events. The researcher Joyce Kimutai dell’Imperial College of London said: “Once again, these floods demonstrate the devastating results of fossil fuel-driven warming. Until oil, gas and coal are replaced by renewable energy, storms like Boris will unleash even more violent rainfall, causing floods that severely damage local economies.”
Researchers have found that The four days of rainfall brought by Boris were the heaviest ever recorded in Central Europe. Not only that, the rain hit an incredibly large area, even exceeding the historic floods of 1997 and 2002.
The phenomenon was amplified by the meeting between the cold air of the Alps and the warm air coming from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, creating a real “perfect storm”. However, despite these unusual weather conditions, scientists have confirmed that climate change has made Storm Boris more intense and likely.
Using weather observations and climate models, the WWA determined that climate change has doubled the likelihood of heavy rainfall events like the one caused by Boris and made rainfall of the 7% more abundant. With global warming of 2°C, similar storms could cause even more intense rainfall (at least 5% more) and occur 50% more frequently.
