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full screen Valencia residents inspect the devastation after the deluge that resulted from Tuesday’s heavy downpour. Photo: Alberto Saiz/AP
It is described as “the worst storm of the century”.
After the floods after Dana in Spain researchers assert that it has a connection with climate change.
Over a hundred people have died in the severe floods in southern and southeastern Spain. The rain that fell in just eight hours was equivalent to a year’s worth of rain.
– The amounts of rain became much greater due to man’s influence on the climate, says Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading to the British Science media center.
Intensification of climate change
He believes that there is no doubt that storms and storms become “extra charged due to a warmer, thirstier atmosphere”.
Climate scientists at the World weather attribution have begun a rapid analysis of the floods in Spain to see if they can be linked to climate change.
– These explosive rains have been intensified by climate change. These deadly floods are yet another reminder of how dangerous climate change has become already at 1.3 degrees of warming. But last week the UN warned that we are on course to experience up to 3.1 degrees warmer in average temperatures by the end of the century, says climatologist Friederike Otto of the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.
Several extreme downpours in 2024
He says to Dagens Nyheter:
– We haven’t started the analysis yet, but we have seen several similar extreme downpours recently – from Dubai and Afghanistan to central Europe and the Sahel region of Africa – and all of them have had roughly the same result, namely that the downpours have become around ten percent more intense of our emissions.
In recent years, the world’s oceans have been much warmer than normal. Water vapor at the water surface creates rain clouds which result in stronger evaporation and more water in the clouds. When it falls, it is in the form of heavier precipitation.
– The warmer the atmosphere becomes, the more water vapor the air can contain, which increases the amount of precipitation, says Erik Kjellström, professor of climatology at SMHI, to SvD.