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How can more than 10,000 people die in a single rain?
The water bombs that rained down on Libya in North Africa showed the terrifying power of the Mediterranean hurricane, the so-called “Medicane.”
There is an assessment that the seriousness of the climate crisis has been confirmed once again.
Reporter Hyeon In-ah of the Climate and Environment team analyzed the causes of the Libyan disaster.
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Derna is a city with a population of 100,000 located on the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa.
Streets that were once crowded with cars and people were left with only the remains of buildings and cars.
The United Nations said that the total number of deaths and disappearances confirmed so far is more than 10,000.
Up to 414 mm of rain fell in northeastern Libya in 24 hours, the worst rainfall ever observed, causing two dams upstream of the city to collapse.
30 million tons of water, equivalent to 12,000 swimming pools, engulfed the city like a tsunami.
The cause of the record-breaking rain is Medicane ‘Daniel’.
Medicane is a combination of the words Mediterranean and hurricane, meaning ‘Mediterranean hurricane’.
In the Mediterranean, tropical storms often occur starting in September when water temperatures rise.
This is ‘Daniel’, the medicane who caused this disaster.
Daniel, which occurred in western Greece, dumped 750 mm of rain in Greece in 24 hours.
It was the first heavy rain ever experienced in the history of Greek weather observation.
Daniel grew to typhoon-level force with maximum wind speeds of 70 to 80 kilometers per hour and turned south.
There are two main reasons why Daniel’s power became stronger.
First, the high water temperature of the Mediterranean Sea.
Although the water temperature was not unusually high, it was about 1 degree higher than normal, ranging from 27.5 to 28 degrees.
The second cause is the Omega-type westerlies.
This is the jet stream flowing over Europe at the time.
Instead of flowing coolly from west to east, the westerly wind bent sharply north to south, shaped like the Greek letter Omega.
This phenomenon caused the atmosphere to stagnate, helping Daniel increase his strength in one place.
[김백민/부경대 환경대기과학과 교수]
″As the North Pole has heated up and much of the ice has melted since the 2,000s, the north-south fluctuation of westerly winds has become more severe.″
The dam, which was built a long time ago, was not maintained and was washed away like a sand castle in heavy rain.
There was no proper warning to residents.
The Libyan tragedy leaves us with two lessons.
First, the climate has become very dangerous due to the greenhouse gases already emitted.
[코스타스 라구바르도스/그리스 국립 아테네 천문대 연구실장]
″After Tropical Storm Daniel, we must completely reexamine the early warning system and resident protection measures in preparation for disasters.″
Another thing is the importance of stable politics and peace.
This is because wars and wasteful political strife inside and outside the country make it difficult to prevent and respond to avoidable disasters.
This is Hyeon In-ah from MBC News.
Video Editing: Namjoo
#lives #lost #single #rain #dreaded #Mediterranean #hurricane
2023-09-23 11:27:34
