In one town in the Valencia region of Spain, a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours. At least 51 people are known to have died in flash floods, but that number is almost certain to rise. Video footage shows people clinging on to their lives, bridges being washed away, cars careering down torrents. It is not some dystopian feature film, but Europe in 2024.
Not every extreme weather event is the result of climate change. But scientific evidence shows that incidents such as flash floods, wildfires and hurricanes are made more intense and frequent as a result of a world warmed by greenhouse gasses. It is basic chemistry that warmer air can contain more moisture, leading to the vastly more explosive storms we have seen this week.
