The region is no stranger to storms like those that caused this week’s deluges. But global warming helps them pack a bigger punch, scientists said.
The flooding in eastern Spain, already the deadliest disaster in the country’s recent history, is a foretaste of the extreme storms that the region can expect to see more of as humans continue heating up the planet, scientists said this week.
Because warmer air holds more moisture, the likelihood of severe downpours rises with every extra ounce of carbon dioxide that people put into the atmosphere by burning coal, oil and gas for energy.
The storms that caused this week’s deluges were of a type that is familiar to the region each fall. But global warming is helping such storms pack a bigger punch, scientists said, in a warning to local officials about the increasing urgency of flood preparedness.
In the town of Chiva, west of the city of Valencia, nearly 20 inches of rain fell in eight hours on Tuesday, Spain’s meteorological agency said. That’s what the area normally receives in a year.
“We know that extreme rainfall is becoming more extreme and more frequent,” said Andreas Prein, a professor of weather and climate modeling at the Swiss university ETH Zurich. “And we know that our infrastructure is aging and outdated. But being proactive about that is extremely difficult.”