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Europe's extreme rains made more likely by humans

Tying individual extreme weather events to climate change has, in the past, proved elusive. But scientists now say they can put a figure on the increased likelihood of the sort of deadly floods which swept through Western Europe last month: global warming has made that up to nine times more likely to be repeated. 

Professor Maarten Van Aalst of the University of Twente in the Netherlands is one of the group from the World Weather Atttribution Group who have been calculating the odds.

Photo: A collapsed house after heavy flooding of the river Ahr, in Altenahr, Germany, 19 July 2021
Credit: EPA

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