Epic floods in Central Europe, scientists raise the alarm

Picturesque towns across central Europe have been flooded after heavy weekend rains turned calm streams into raging rivers that caused catastrophic damage to infrastructure.

The floods have killed at least 15 people and destroyed buildings from Austria to Romania.

The devastation follows devastating floods around the world last week, when entire villages were submerged in Myanmar and nearly 300 prisoners escaped from a collapsed prison in Nigeria, where flooding has affected more than 1 million people.

Climate scientists say they are concerned by the damage but not surprised by the intensity.

"Disastrous rainfall hitting central Europe is exactly what scientists expect with climate change," said Joyce Kimutai, of Imperial College London's Grantham Institute.

She said the deaths and damage across Africa and Europe showed "how badly and how unprepared the world is for such floods".

Another climate scientist at ETH Zürich, Sonia Seneviratne, said immediate analyzes of the central European floods suggested that most of the water vapor came from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, which have become hotter as a result of climate disruption. man-made, resulting in more water evaporating into the air.

“On average, the intensity of heavy rainfall events increases by 7% for each degree of global warming. We now have 1.2C of global warming, which means that on average heavy rainfall events are 8% more intense," she said, The Guardian reports.

Weather station data show that September rainfall bursts have become larger in Germany, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia since 1950, Kimutai said.

Erich Fischer, a climate scientist at ETH Zürich, said scientists at the conference were discussing the physics of how climate change increases the intensity of lunchtime rainfall on the banks of the New Danube.

The death toll from flooding depends on how well communities prepare for the rain and react to its effects. Scientists have urged governments to invest in adapting to extreme weather events through early warning systems, more resilient infrastructure and support schemes for victims, while also ending their reliance on fossil fuels.

"It is clear that even highly developed countries are not safe from climate change," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Grantham Institute. "As long as the world burns oil, gas and coal, heavy rainfall and other extremes of weather will intensify, making our planet a more dangerous and expensive place to live."