The floods that sent rivers of mud tearing through towns in Italy’s northeast are another drenching dose of climate change’s all-or-nothing weather extremes, something that has been happening around the globe, scientists say.
In a changing climate, more rain is coming, but it’s falling on fewer days in less useful and more dangerous downpours.
The hard-hit Emilia-Romagna region was particularly vulnerable. Its location between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea trapped the weather system this week that dumped half the average annual amount of rain in 36 hours.
“These are events that developed with persistence and are classified as rare,″ Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters.
A powerful storm doused California with heavy rain on Friday, prompting evacuation warnings as the state...
As Hurricane Melissa crept closer to Jamaica on Monday, Oct. 27, the island nation braced for...
The US Senate rejected an effort on Wednesday to halt a contentious US Fish and Wildlife...
Melissa intensified into a hurricane on Saturday, Oct. 25, as it continued its slow slog across...
