The consequences of the rising climate crisis have been witnessed in many parts of the world in the form of natural disasters including heavy rainfall, deadly floods, and landslides. In September 2024, Central and Eastern Europe met with an unusual low-pressure storm called Boris. This resulted in the heavy rain and the fatal floods wiped out many livelihoods in the countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. This catastrophe took place from September 11 to september 18 causing death of many lives, extreme snowfall in the regions of Alps, strong and unsettled wind, rise of river water level after its burst in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Austria, and the global heating caused the melt of snow in the alpines.
“Yet again, these floods highlight the devastating results of fossil fuel-driven warming. Until oil, gas, and coal is replaced with renewable energy, storms like Boris will unleash even heavier rainfall, driving economy-crippling floods” said by Dr. Joyce Kimutai, a researcher on climate change and the environment at Imperial College.
Researchers claim that this heavy rain has not been witnessed for the past two decades. It directly implies that global warming paved the way for the aggravation of unexpected natural calamity. The storm poured rainfall surpassing the expected rainfall rate in the month of September. Although the WWA (World Weather Attribution) warned that global heating is the main cause of this heavy rainfall, some scientists disagree with their statement.
“It is really difficult to relate a single event to climate change impact. Every time we do an attribution study, we tend to find that the events we see have been exacerbated by climate change, and I’m pretty sure that will be the case here, but we don’t yet conclusively know”, says Paul Bates, a professor of hydrology at the University of Bristol. He is specialised in the science of flooding.
The cost of the damage caused by the flood is estimated as 1 billion euros and the government of Poland had promised to give 468 million euros as aid.10 billion euros was promised to be given by the European Commission President, Ursula Von der Leyen.
Scientists and their statements over the flood
“These floods were big, widespread and hugely damaging. They were well forecast and the planning and action taken, by both individuals and authorities, undoubtedly helped save lives” – Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology
“Crippling droughts in southern Italy. Devastating wildfires in Portugal. Killer floods in Central Europe. Climate Change is wreaking havoc in Europe, but politicians across the continent are trying to pull back on climate commitments. Climate Change is an existential threat, especially for poorer parts of the society” said the Senior lecturer Friederike Otto at London’s Grantham Institute.
“These large storms, cut off from the jet stream, are able to stagnate in one place and produce huge amounts of rainfall, fuelled by increased moisture and energy from oceans that are record-shatteringly hot” said Hayley Fowler – Climate scientist at Newcastle University.
Including Europe, other countries who dealt with unexpected heavy rain and floods in 2024 are Germany, Italy, India, Bangladesh, China, and the USA. It is clear evidence of wake up calls from nature due to global heating and its effects over many parts of the world.
