Copyright AP Photo/Petr David Josek Researchers also warn that the cost of climate disasters in Europe is rapidly rising. Flooding that killed 24 people in Central Europe earlier this month was caused by rainfall made twice as likely by human-induced climate change, a group of scientists said on Wednesday. Storm Boris stalled over Central Europe from 12 to 16 September, inundating Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia, Italy and Germany with torrential rain. Thousands of people have had to leave their homes as buildings were swept away, bridges collapsed and infrastructure was damaged. Now a rapid analysis by researchers from World Weather Attribution (WWA) has found the “fingerprints of climate change” on the intense rainfall that caused this deadly flooding. Related Deadly flooding and wildfires are signs of ‘climate breakdown’ fast becoming the norm, EU warns ‘Breakthrough to a better world’: How can we avert 3C this century? WMO report offers solutions “Yet again, these floods highlight the devastating results of fossil fuel-driven warming,” says Dr Joyce Kimtual, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment. “Until oil, gas and coal is replaced with renewable energy, storms like Boris will unleash even heavier rainfall, driving economy-crippling floods.” Unusual conditions made worse by climate change The researchers from WWA found that the four days of rainfall from Storm Boris was the heaviest ever recorded across Central Europe by a significant margin. The precipitation also covered an unusually large area, even greater than previous historic floods in 1997 and 2002. Cold air from the Alps meeting very warm air from the Mediterranean and Black Seas created a “perfect storm” that then dropped heavy rainfall over a very large area, the scientists say. Handout photo provided by the State Fire Service of Poland shows firefighters inspecting safety […]