Climate change increases the probability of floods of the century enormously

It was only a few weeks ago that we were shocked by reports and pictures from West and South Germany. Floods, believed to be once a century or a millennium, devastated vast swathes of land and left dozens of people homeless. After the event, causes and reasons are now being investigated, with climate change playing a major role.

A new study that focused in particular on the events around the Ahr and Erft and the heavily affected Meuse region in Belgium has now found that the probability of such a storm with heavy rain is 0.25 percent per year. Climate change, however, favors the development of slow moving storms, these are up to fourteen times more likely.

Slowly moving storms cause significantly more precipitation on smaller areas, so local floods are more likely. If you compare a planet on which there would have been no global warming with our current status, then extreme rains between 1.2 and nine times more likely have become. At the same time, the intensity increased by three to 19 percent.

Since warmer air can store more water, there is also sufficient liquid for such rains. The researchers assume that for every degree of global warming, almost 7 percent more water can be stored in the air masses. Scenes like those in West Germany could therefore occur more frequently in the next few decades.

That is why researchers are also appealing to the federal states and calling for them to be better prepared for such extreme weather. Especially after the recent floods, facts became known that the population could actually have been warned earlier. Warning systems must therefore be expanded and the infrastructure prepared for greater exposure.

Own opinion:

We are seeing more and more effects of climate change, at the same time not all of us are changing our lifestyle in order to reduce our ecological footprint. Today we determine what the world of tomorrow will look like and whether more and more people lose their property due to natural disasters or whether they still have a long-term home. It is therefore also in the interests of the citizens if politicians sanction environmentally harmful behavior more strongly.

Via The Guardian