Spain’s Floods Bring Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Giants into Focus

Flood waves and mud ripped across eastern Spanish towns and cities, leaving more than 205 dead and hundreds missing. Climate scientists believe it is related to human-caused global warming and is one of the deadliest weather catastrophes in contemporary Spanish history.

A quick review by World Weather Attribution, an international organisation of scientists that evaluates the influence of climate change on significant weather occurrences, found that climate change made this week’s torrential downpour around 12% heavier and twice as likely.

Climate experts have been warning for decades that major floods will result from global warming which is mostly caused by human burning of coal, oil and gas.

Burning fossil fuels warms the atmosphere which can store more water vapour and intensify downpours. Compared to the 1800s, the planet is currently at least 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer. According to climate research the atmosphere may keep roughly 9% extra moisture for every 1.3 degree increase in temperature.

Spain’s meteorological agency reports that in areas like Chiva, a town close to Valencia pours rain worth a year in just eight hours.

Scientists claim that superhot waters are likely to be linked to Spain’s floods. The primary cause of record-breakingly hot oceans is climate change. Storms have the ability to absorb more moisture when ocean waters are warmer.

Global warming probably raised temperatures in the area of the Atlantic Ocean where the majority of the storm’s moisture came from, according to a report by the nonprofit research organisation Climate Central.

Scientists have been warning us about catastrophic climatic events, and the terrible floods in Spain are just the most recent example