This week, there is another wave of extreme weather around the world. North Carolina was Hit with a historic amount of rain. Central and Eastern Europe has experienced some Their worst floods in decades. And Nigeria faced Unprecedented flooding after days of heavy rains.
Personally, the disaster has been damaging; Together, their intensity and proximity to each other is a stark reminder of how climate change is already affecting people around the world. A part of such development Widespread growth in all types of extreme weather — droughts, extreme heat, tropical storms, and wildfires — that will continue, and growthIn the coming years.
According to a study Extreme climate change could affect 70 percent of the world’s population over the next two decades if more efforts are not taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Norway’s Center for International Climate Research revealed this week. Limit global temperature rise 1.5 degrees Celsius – or about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
As for this week’s flooding, chances are A clear link to climate change. Although there were unique factors that fueled the storms and floods, in each of these places, higher temperatures meant the atmosphere could hold more water, meaning it It can “dump” moreAlso, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Consequently, as the Earth warms, The heaviest rainfall event They tend to be even more severe than they would otherwise be.
“I’m pretty comfortable asserting that these events were at least 10 to 15 percent more intense than the amount of precipitation resulting from this fairly basic effect,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain told Vox, referring to precipitation in Europe and North Carolina.
Climate change is fueling more extreme weather
Although each individual storm has its own characteristics, extreme flooding events Just what scientists expect See with increasing global warming: According to research By the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, current models reflect high confidence that flood frequency and magnitude are projected to increase globally, with some extreme changes in Asia, central Africa, Europe and eastern North America.
“An increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events” is one of the most “visible consequences” of global warming. Climate and Energy Solutions Center notes. That was evident this week, when North Carolina, Nigeria and central and eastern Europe, thousands of miles away, were inundated with massive amounts of rain in a short period of time.
A section of Carolina Beach received 18 inches of rain in a 12-hour span, the National Weather Service reported described as A once-in-1,000-year rainfall event.” In Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Prague, Czech Republic, a recent storm dumped “a month’s worth of rain” in about three days, CNN reported. At least 17 people have died in the floods in central Europe. According to the New York TimesThe death toll is expected to rise in the coming days.
In Nigeria, a dam burst in the northern city of Maiduguri Many days of historic rainwhich fueled the submergence flood 40 percent of the city and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. That event added to weeks of flooding across West and Central Africa, where More than a thousand people died.
Although flooding is dependent on the environmental conditions prevailing in a particular region, heavy rainfall can contribute to it, or precipitate it. And it may hold as the atmosphere warms due to climate change Up to 7 percent more moisture For every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature. It may already be raining heavily Storms are more so.
“The strongest evidence is that a warming atmosphere raises the ceiling on precipitation intensity,” Swain said. Individual variables at each of these locations — including the presence of a weather event Known as an “atmospheric block”. in Europe — helped fuel these large-scale storms, but a warmer atmosphere and its ability to produce rain likely exacerbated their impact.
This week’s flooding illustrates a phenomenon that is poised to become more common as the world moves along a projected path of further warming. The world’s countries have the opportunity to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change if they are able. Greenhouse gas emissions will be zero by 2050Targets set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. This week’s extreme flood flows are a reminder to develop global infrastructure that can be responsive to intensifying weather events and focus on curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change in the first place.
“When we see these kinds of record-breaking extreme precipitation events, this is actually a very clear and representative example of an event that we expect to continue to increase with further warming,” Swain said.
