Study: Heavy rain is linked to human behavior

“We’re seeing trends that can be linked to man-made climate change, but we can’t yet predict exactly when this type of event will occur,” he said. write researchers From the World Weather Attribution, an international collaborative body that analyzes climate change.

Researchers investigated the torrential rains that hit Germany and Belgium between July 12 and 15 this year. Since the land was already saturated with rain, there were severe floods that killed at least 220 people and, among other things, destroyed homes, highways and railways.

The researchers concluded Global warming has made the probability of similar disasters in Western Europe nearly nine times more likely. Their starting point was that during pre-industrial times, on average, only similar extreme weather occurred every 400 years. According to the study, precipitation amounts will also rise by as much as 19 percent.

“We have looked at research from several areas to understand the relationship between climate change and the terrible floods last month, and to understand the conclusions we can or cannot draw in this situation,” WWA Dutch researcher Sjoukje Philip tells BBC.

It is difficult to assess the impact of climate change on local heavy rainfall. However, we were able to demonstrate that in Western Europe, greenhouse gases released by humans made this type of event more likely.

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