The flood disaster in July cost many people their lives.
Researchers have now found that the flood is due to climate change.
What does that mean for the future?
Offenbach - In mid-July, many people in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia lost their belongings - 180 people lost their lives.
The reason was the devastating floods.
According to an international study, such extreme weather situations will not happen in the future either.
In the analysis, the scientists found that such floods in Germany are more likely to recur due to extreme rainfall.
The study was carried out in collaboration between World Weather Attribution and the German Weather Service (DWD).
Flood study provides information about the July flood
“On the one hand, we learned that it was a very rare event,” says Frank Kreienkamp, head of the regional climate office at DWD in Potsdam.
Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that climate change played a major role in the floods in July: "We can see very clearly that climate change has significantly increased the probability of occurrence and that it has increased the intensity," Kreienkamp continued.
The study also clearly shows that the total amount of precipitation has increased by between three and 19 percent - the reason for this is climate change.
The current climate favors the likelihood that such heavy rain events will occur again.
As the researchers found, the factor of the probability of occurrence increased between 1.2 and 9. This shows that extreme weather conditions are to be expected due to climate change.
Study shows: Climate change affects extreme weather
For the study, the scientists compared the effects of today's climate with the end of the 19th century - because at that time the global average temperature was 1.2 degrees lower. With the help of statistical analyzes and computer simulations, the team of 39 researchers from Europe, Great Britain and the USA were able to gain new insights. These results are also important for future weather forecasts.
"That helps me a lot because I can always
better establish
this connection between climate change, weather forecast and weather events in the event of future severe weather warnings," says
ARD
weather and climate expert Sven Plöger.
"And without terrifying people or panicking them, but informing them", Plöger continues.
“These are very important results because they show us that climate change actually had an impact on this event.
That was initially a guess, and now it can be proven in numbers, ”adds the weather and climate expert.
(swa)
List of rubric lists: © Sebastian Schmitt
