The floods that hit Germany and Belgium in July - where about 200 people died, with enormous damage to homes, roads and other infrastructure - were defined by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, as «a clear indication of climate change», and the same has been said by scientists and experts who study global warming.
It has now been proven that the increase in the average temperature of the Earth is a determining factor in triggering more and more extreme weather events, and today researchers have enough data to understand, even in the short term, whether a single anomalous weather event falls within the range or not of the wider area of the climate crisis.
When temperatures are above average for a long time, humidity also increases, and consequently so does the amount of rainfall: generally, under certain conditions, an increase of 1°C in temperature leads to more intense rainfall by up to 7 percent. Furthermore, due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases produced largely by human activities, the earth struggles to release its heat through the atmosphere and consequently an increase in the average temperature is recorded: this mechanism, on the whole, contributes to reducing the speed of air flows which in standard conditions would allow low pressure systems to move.
