Floods in Europe are increasing and more violent – Europe

The massive floods caused by Dana in Spain are just the latest in a long list of extreme events to hit Europe in recent years. “What they have in common is the increase in temperature, the effects of which also include a huge increase in the ability of the atmosphere to contain water vapor,” explains Dino Zardi, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Trento.

“A wetter atmosphere is also more unstableThat is, they develop vertical lifting movements more easily due to convection, causing heavy rainfall. In fact, over the years we have observed an increase in the intensity of extreme events. “There is also a widespread feeling that their frequency is increasing, but to say that with certainty, we will need more robust statistics.”

Over the past 30 years, floods in Europe have affected 5.5 million people, causing nearly 3,000 casualties and more than €170 billion in economic damage.. The data were reported in a resolution approved by the European Parliament last September, following floods caused by Storm Boris that hit Central Europe first (Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary) and then also Emilia-Romagna, with a total of Victims: Nearly thirty victims.

However, the whole of 2024 has not been an easy yearJust think of the end of Hurricane Kirk that hit Italy about ten days ago, the torrential rains that caused about twenty deaths in Bosnia at the beginning of October, and then again the floods on the French Riviera at the end of September, the storm that hit Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta in July. July, or the storm that overturned southern Germany last June, or even Storm Henk that struck France and Great Britain in January.

Looking to 2023, floods have affected about 1.6 million people in Europe and caused about 81% of this year's economic losses due to the effects of climate change on the continent, according to Copernicus data. 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. The year 2023 was then the year of floods in Slovenia, Croatia and Austria, which occurred in August, and the major flood in Emilia-Romagna in May.

The previous year, 2022, was highly anomalous but in the opposite sense: in terms of rainfall, it was 10% drier than average and soil moisture conditions were the second lowest in the past 50 years. For European rivers, this was the driest year on record in terms of area affected, with 63% of them seeing below-average flows. So it's been a year of rest after a really tough 2021. The most disastrous phenomenon is the one that struck Germany and Belgium in July, which also affected Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with a total of more than 240 victims (nearly 200 in Germany alone). In August, it was Türkiye's turn, with more than 70 casualties.

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