Lublin (Business Emerge), September 25: A recent study reveals that climate change has significantly increased the likelihood of torrential downpours like those that led to catastrophic flooding in Central Europe this month. The report, published on Wednesday, shows that such extreme weather events are now twice as likely to occur due to global warming. Researchers involved in the study are urging policymakers to take swift measures to curb the rise in global temperatures.
This severe flooding, the worst Central Europe has experienced in over two decades, resulted in the tragic loss of 24 lives. Several towns were submerged under mud and debris, with infrastructure severely damaged. Buildings crumbled, bridges collapsed, and the financial toll for repairs is expected to reach billions of dollars.
Conducted by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of scientists analyzing the link between climate change and extreme weather, the study concluded that the four-day rainfall caused by Storm Boris was unprecedented in the region. According to the findings, climate change has made such heavy rainfalls at least twice as likely and has intensified them by about 7%.
“These floods are a grim reminder of the destructive impact of fossil fuel-driven climate change,” said Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London and co-author of the report. She emphasized that transitioning from oil, gas, and coal to renewable energy sources is essential to prevent worsening floods and the severe economic consequences they bring.
Although the specific weather pattern that triggered Storm Boris — involving a mix of cold air over the Alps and warm air from the Mediterranean and Black Seas — was uncommon, the study stresses that global warming is making such storms increasingly more powerful and frequent.
The report highlights that storms of this magnitude currently occur around once every 100 to 300 years in today’s climate, which has already seen a 1.3-degree Celsius rise in temperature since pre-industrial times. However, if global warming continues unchecked and reaches 2 degrees Celsius by the 2050s, these storms will become about 50% more frequent and bring at least 5% more rainfall than they do today.