The dramatic floods caused in Spain by the Dana phenomenon are only the latest in a long list of extreme events that have hit Europe in recent years. “Their common denominator is the increase in temperatures which, among its effects, also has that of exponentially increasing the atmosphere’s capacity to contain water vapour”, explains Dino Zardi, atmospheric physicist at the University of Trento.
“The more humid atmosphere is also more unstablethat is, it more easily develops vertical lifting motions due to convection, causing more copious rainfall. Over the years, in fact, we have observed an increase in the intensity of extreme phenomena. There is also a widespread feeling that their frequency is increasing, but to say this with certainty we will need more robust statistics.”
Over the last 30 years, floods in Europe have affected 5.5 million people, causing almost 3,000 victims and over 170 billion euros in economic damage. The data are reported in a resolution approved by the European Parliament last September, following the floods caused by storm Boris which first hit central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary) and then also Emilia Romagna, with a total toll of almost thirty victims.
The whole of 2024, however, was not an easy year: just think of the tail end of Hurricane Kirk which hit Italy about ten days ago, the torrential rains which caused around twenty deaths in Bosnia at the beginning of October, and then again the floods on the French Riviera at the end of September, the one that hit Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta in July, the one that overturned southern Germany last June or even the storm Henk that hit France and Great Britain in January.
Looking back to 2023, floods affected around 1.6 million people in Europe and caused around 81% of the year’s economic losses due to climate change impacts on the continent, according to data from the Copernicus programme. A third of Europe’s river network saw flows above the ‘high’ flood threshold, and record levels were recorded in major basins including the Loire, Rhine and Danube, due to a series of storms between October and December. 2023 was then the year of the floods in Slovenia, Croatia and Austria, hit in August, and of the great flood in Emilia Romagna in May.
The previous year, 2022, was highly anomalous but in the opposite sense: in terms of precipitation, it was 10% drier than average and soil moisture conditions were the second lowest in the last 50 years. For European rivers, it was the driest year on record in terms of area affected, with 63% experiencing below-average flows. It was therefore a year of respite after a truly difficult 2021. The most disastrous phenomenon is the one that hit Germany and Belgium in July, also affecting Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with a total toll of over 240 victims (almost 200 in Germany alone). In August it was Turkey’s turn, with more than 70 victims.
