(Reuters) – In 2024, it often felt like it was flooding somewhere in the world.
The floods took many forms: coastal homes were inundated as rising seas were pushed ashore by strong storms, torrential amounts of rain fell on an increasingly paved-over world, quickly melting snowpack caused rivers to burst their banks.
Whether from lifeboats, makeshift workstations dragged through mud, helicopters, or with drones, Reuters photographers covered flooding in more than 45 countries this year.
The floods took over 1,000 lives, displaced millions of people, and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. For many it will take years to recover. And much – flattened cars, contaminated store stock, mud-drenched belongings – will never be replaced.
People evacuated in boats, tubs and whatever they could lay their hands on. They rescued their pets, cleaned mud from their kitchens, and dried out books when the sun returned. Children played in the unexpected novelty of the water and the elderly wept for the houses they had built that had gone forever.
In the most severe cases — even before the waters had receded — scientists got to work on rapid analyses that asked to what extent climate change amplified a certain storm or rainfall event.
In fifteen of the sixteen analyses that World Weather Attribution scientists undertook in 2024 that looked at extreme rainfall events — from Valencia in Spain to Asheville in North Carolina, and from Brazil to Kenya — they found that climate change made the rainfall heavier or more likely.
Scientists have long predicted that an increase in the global temperature would create an increase in precipitation — although not evenly distributed — because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor.
This year will be the hottest in the last 125,000 years, and the first to cross 1.5C (2.7F) since humans started burning coal, oil and gas to power economies. Already the planet has warmed about 1.3C above the pre-industrial average, corresponding to about a 10% increase in expected precipitation.
With global CO2 emissions hitting a record high in 2024, the compounding effects from this excess carbon will be affecting our weather for decades to come.
Climate change is also causing sea levels to rise, which makes some coastal flooding more likely or severe.
Scientists say the extent of a flood’s damage to lives and property is largely attributed to other factors, including how much cement is in the environment, the topography or saturation of the ground, and if people were adequately warned ahead.
As irregular heavy rainfall becomes more common, experts say countries will need to invest in adapting the places people live, and how they notify their populations about risk.
(Writing by Ali Withers, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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