Climate – A year revealing the extreme double face of climate change. According to the report of the European Observatory Copernicus, published this Tuesday, April 15, Europe experienced in 2024 record heat but also the worst floods for more than a decade.
The balance sheet, produced in collaboration with the world meteorological organization, indicates that almost a third of the European river network was flooded last year, which was one of the most rainy years of the continent since 1950. The year was notably marked by a Danube unleashed during the Boris storm or the hundreds of deaths carried away by water and mud torrents.
The Boris storm leaves central Europe in a catastrophic state, the extent of the phenomenon in images and figures
These are “The most extensive floods” that Europe has known “Since 2013”underlined during a Samantha Burgess press point in the European Center for Middle Term weather forecast (ECMWF), which provides Copernicus climatological service. These floods affected around 413,000 people, costing their lives to at least 335 of them, with an estimated cost of damage of around 18 billion euros.
A flood every month in early 2024
These disasters occurred during the hottest year in the world and illustrate the fact that a warmer planet, absorbing more water in the atmosphere, generates more violent precipitation and floods, a threat that weighs particularly on Europe.
In September, the Boris storm dropped up to three months of rain in just five days. This caused immense floods and major damage in eight countries in central and eastern Europe. A month later, powerful storms, fed by the hot and humid air of the Mediterranean, poured torrential rains on Spain, causing floods that devastated the eastern province of Valencia. These bad weather cost the lives of 232 people.
At the beginning of 2024, each month was the scene of a major flood on the continent, recalls the report: January in the United Kingdom, February in the north of Spain, March and May in the north of France, June in Germany and Switzerland.
And the flow of rivers was particularly high, some like the Thames in the United Kingdom or the Loire in France recording their highest level for 33 years in spring and autumn. In question: particularly intense precipitation on the western part of Europe, while conversely, the oriental regions were on average dry and warmer.
The continent that warms the most
According to Samantha Burgess, this “Starting contrast” is not directly linked to climate change, but rather to opposite pressure systems that influence cloud cover and moisture transport. But the storms of 2024 were “Probably more violent due to a warmer and humid atmosphere”she explained. “With global warming, we are witnessing more and more extreme events”.
This confirms the projections of IPCC climatic experts, according to which Europe will be one of the regions where the risk of flooding should increase the most due to the global warming.
Since the 1980s, Europe has heated twice as fast as the world average. It is the “Continent that warms the most”become one of “Warm points” Climate change, underlines Florence Rabier, director of ECMWF. In 2024, the heat on the surface of the continent was never so high. This helped to increase the temperature of the bordering seas and oceans, which also reached records last year, and to melt European glaciers at an unprecedented rate.
“It is urgent to act, because the severity of the risk should reach critical or catastrophic levels by the middle or the end of this century”recalled Andrew Ferrone, an EU scientific coordinator in the UN Climate, stressing that each tenth of degree avoided is important.
Only half of European cities have adaptation plans to meet extreme climate events, such as extreme floods and heat. “This represents an encouraging progress compared to the 26 % of 2018”note the report. “But some southeast and southern Caucasus European countries are lagging behind. So we have to go faster, further and together “ said Celeste Saulo, OMM secretary general.
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