More than 100 deaths from floods in Europe 2:00
(CNN) -
European officials said climate change contributed to extreme floods this week, which left entire cities submerged and more than 120 people dead.
For decades scientists have warned that climate change will make extreme weather events more likely, including heavy rains and deadly floods.
About 100 of the people who died in the torrential rains that took place since Wednesday were in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, located in western Germany, where local leaders urge the world to a faster action against climate change as the peoples under its watch become a new and unexpected epicenter of global warming.
Natural disasters that have impacted the world recently
Neighboring Belgium has also been hit hard by the floods, which have killed 20 people in the country.
And the number could rise even further, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told a news conference on Friday.
Floods devastate towns in Belgium 1:18
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that the floods in northwestern Europe were proof that urgent action is needed to tackle climate change.
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"Science tells us that with climate change, we are seeing more and more extreme weather events that last longer," von der Leyen said two days after presenting an ambitious package of proposals on climate change to the European Union.
"It is the intensity and duration of these events when science tells us that it is a clear indication of climate change and that this is something that really shows the urgency to act."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday, where she welcomed the return of the North American country to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
He said this would strengthen this year's climate discussions, known as the Conference of the Parties (COP), which will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, later in 2021.
"We talked about the challenges of climate change and I am very, very happy that the United States has returned to the Paris Agreement and that this gives us a very different base in Glasgow to fight for more climate protection at the Conference of the Parties," He said.
"I think weather events - whether it's fires in the United States, dramatically high temperatures, or sudden erratic rains - indicate that the number of extraordinary weather events has increased dramatically in recent years. We need to respond to that," he added.
Catastrophic floods devastate cities in Europe 1:21
His comments echoed those of his Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, who tweeted on Thursday: "Climate change has reached Germany."
"The facts show how strongly the consequences of climate change can affect us all and how important it is for us to adapt to extreme weather events in the future," he added.
Many politicians increasingly recognize and accept that anthropogenic, ie human-induced, climate change plays a role in extreme weather events.
Biden, for example, recently linked extreme heat and prolonged drought in the United States to climate change.
Why is it getting hotter in the United States?
This experts say
Floods and climate change
Now scientists can estimate how important the role of climate change has been in a particular event.
It is too early to draw conclusions about the current floods in Europe, but some estimates are likely to be known in the coming days.
In 2016, Europe had a similar, albeit less extreme, flood event that left 18 people dead in Germany, France, Romania and Belgium.
And it was found that it was 80-90% more likely to occur than in the past, before human-induced climate change.
Not only officials at national and EU level are sounding the alarm on the climate, but also local leaders on the front lines of the catastrophe.
Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet - who is also the Conservatives' candidate to succeed Merkel - said the floods in his state were "a catastrophe of historic proportions."
And he called on the world to accelerate efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
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Homes were damaged by flooding in Insul, Germany, on Thursday, July 15.
The Ahr river overflowed the night before.
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A man walks through water in a flood-affected area after heavy rains in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.
Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters
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A regional train stopped at the local station in Kordel, Germany, after it was flooded by rising waters from the river Kyll.
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Residents use rafts to evacuate after the Meuse river overflowed during heavy flooding in Liege, Belgium.
Valentin Bianchi / AP
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People look at a railroad crossing that was destroyed by floods in Priorei, Germany.
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Men walk past damaged houses in Schuld, Germany.
Michael Probst / AP
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A man inspects what remains of his home in Schuld.
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Water from the Ahr River runs over a damaged bridge in Schuld.
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Evacuees travel by bus in Valkenburg aan de Geul, the Netherlands.
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A car floats on the Meuse river during heavy flooding in Liege, Belgium, on Thursday.
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People walk along a damaged road in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.
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A resident uses a bucket to draw water from the basement of a house in Hagen, Germany.
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A man and a woman stand on the steps of their house as they look at the floodwaters in Geulle, the Netherlands.
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The river Volme overflows in Priorei, Germany, on Thursday.
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A man descends a ladder in an attempt to drop his boat on the Meuse River in Liege, Belgium.
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Motorhomes were partially submerged in Roermond, the Netherlands.
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A building was destroyed in a flood-affected area of Schuld, Germany.
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People walk over a flooded area in Stansstad, Switzerland.
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Cars were covered in debris in Hagen, Germany.
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An area affected by floods in Schuld, Germany.
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"We will face these kinds of events over and over again, and that means we have to accelerate climate protection measures at European, federal and global level, because climate change is not limited to just one state," he said.
What is causing the heavy rains?
As Earth's atmosphere warms, it can retain more moisture, which in some cases leads to unprecedented rainfall.
The mean total rainfall in an area may not change, but the extremes are amplified.
This can mean longer dry spells or more intense storms.
Flash floods happen when rain falls faster than the ground can absorb it.
It is "sudden" because it starts fast: water levels can rise meters in minutes.
When there is more water vapor in a warmer atmosphere, rainfall rates can increase and flash floods are more likely to occur.
And drought can actually exacerbate this effect.
Very dry soil cannot absorb water efficiently (think, for example, when you try to wet a very dry sponge).
While rain is ultimately beneficial, if a region that has been experiencing severe drought is affected by heavy rains, flash floods are more likely to occur.
Flash Floods: Why Are They So Dangerous?
1:35
That is the dynamic that happens in Germany and Belgium at the moment.
Just a few months ago, there were historically low water levels in the Rhine in Cologne, which was disrupting shipping along the river, but now the river has overflowed because two-month rains fell in a single day.
Projections of how much the temperature would rise on Earth have been largely correct, said Myles Allen, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford.
But there have been outliers: the rise in Europe has been faster than anticipated.
Allen said scientists were expecting more extreme weather events, but that records are being broken at a worrying rate.
In this regard, the unprecedented heat wave in the northwestern United States in late June is another example.
The historic Northwest heat wave would have been "practically impossible"
without a human-made climate crisis, study finds
"Extreme events happen and records are broken all the time," Allen said, "but it is concerning that we are seeing such rapid escalation."
If more action was taken, he said, climate change could be tackled in a generation.
The deadly floods and heat waves serve as a reminder of the extent of this crisis.
"One problem (we have) is that all climate documentaries start with an image of a polar bear, which sends the message that climate change is happening in the Arctic, on the other side of the world," Allen said.
"But these events show that this is not true."
Angela Dewan reported from London, Brandon Miller reported from Atlanta, Nadine Schmidt reported from Berlin and Ulrike Dehmel reported from Bonn.
Climate change Floods