At the end of March and early April, several Greek islands were struck by strong storms, which caused a flood and significant damage.
According to a new study, strong precipitation, registered during these meteorological phenomena, show signs of increased change in human climate.
“Strong storms in Greece, in accordance with the projections of the intergovernmental panel for climate change (MGEIK) to increase extreme meteorological phenomena in the Mediterranean caused by an elevated temperature of the sea,” says Tommaso Alberti, a researcher of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) to Italy.
“Our analysis shows a clear trend: storms become more and more wet, which increases the risk of floods.”
The Greek city records the highest precipitation within 24 hours
March 31 of Paros and Mikonos was injured from Swer rainfall And a city that flooded the streets and dragged vehicles.
The authorities reacted by stopping the school and limiting the movement of ambulances. Residents and tourists were recommended to stay at home, while emergency services performed rescue operations.
These adverse weather conditions continued in April, mainly influencing Crete Island.
The port -city of Khania registered the highest precipitation within 24 hours, causing flood Generalized.
Other islands, including rods, also encountered extreme conditions, with strong winds that caused great destruction.
Global warming causes more destructive weather conditions
Climatologists, a platform that studies extreme weather phenomena, conducted a quick study using historical meteorological data from the Copernicus program over the past 74 years.
Researchers compared behavior Meteorological systems Similarly at the end of the twentieth century (1950-1986) and in recent decades (1987-2023), during which the influence of climate change has become more obvious.
The analysis also considered the influence of the phenomena of the natural variability of the climate, such as El -Nino, which is associated with the heating of the surface of the central and eastern part of the Pacific Ocean.
The investigation came to the conclusion that storms similar to the one that struck Greece at the end of March, now up to 5 mm/day (10-15%) more humid than in the past.
Sources of the natural variability of the climate, possibly, have only to partially influence this change, which forced scientists to conclude that these storms were caused by rare weather conditions, the characteristics of which could be mainly connected by climate change caused by a person.
“Despite the fact that the connection between specific events and climate change is complex, the scheme, of course: global warming leads to more intense and destructive weather conditions,” says Alberti.
“We turn to action, both in softening, in order to reduce emissions, and in adaptation to strengthen the infrastructure, and for the preparation of vulnerable regions, such as the Mediterranean Sea.”