Central Europe’s devastating floods were made much worse by climate change and offer a stark glimpse of the future for the world’s fastest-warming continent, scientists say.
Storm Boris has ravaged countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Austria and Italy, leading to at least 24 deaths and billions of pounds of damage.
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day period was the rainiest ever recorded in central Europe – an intensity made twice as likely by climate change.
On a positive note, the storm was well forecast, meaning some regions were better prepared for it, likely avoiding more deaths.
Scientists at WWA work out how much of a role climate change played in an extreme weather event by comparing it with a model of how bad that storm, drought or heatwave might have been in a world where humans hadn’t been burning fossil fuels for nearly 200 years.
