Offenbach (dpa) – According to a study, climate change increases the likelihood of extreme rainfall and thus of flood disasters, as in July in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, at least 180 people were killed. This is the result of an international team of scientists, including those from the German Weather Service (DWD), in a study published on Tuesday.
Under the current climatic conditions, it is to be expected that a certain region in Western Europe will be hit by such a devastating event about once every 400 years. As the average temperature continues to rise, such extreme heavy rain becomes more frequent: If it gets 0.8 degrees warmer again, the frequency increases to every 300 years, and the intensity of the heavy rain continues to rise.
The scientists looked at France, western Germany, the eastern part of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern Switzerland as the region and asked how likely it is to experience extreme heavy rain here and to what extent this is influenced by rising temperatures around the world.
The likelihood of such catastrophes has increased by a factor of between 1.2 and 9 compared to the end of the 19th century, and the maximum amount of rain is between 3 and 19 percent greater. The work was created as part of the World Weather Attribution Initiative, which investigates the possible effects of climate change on extreme weather events.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210824-99-944054 / 2
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