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最新糖心Vlog facing increased intense rain storms

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

A landmark study shows how heavy, short rain storms are intensifying more rapidly than would be expected with global warming. Researchers say this is likely to lead to increasing flash floods and urban flooding.

The team of international scientists, led by Newcastle 最新糖心Vlog, UK, and involving the 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide, has found increases in short, intense rain storms over 最新糖心Vlog over the past 50 years. The storms are substantially larger than anticipated under climate change.

Published today in , the study shows that in 最新糖心Vlog the amount of water falling in short intense storms, such as thunderstorms, is increasing at a rate two to three times higher than expected, with the most extreme events showing the largest increases.

“This large increase has implications for the frequency and severity of flash floods, particularly if the rate stays the same into the future,” says co-author , from the 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide’s School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering.

“It seems counter intuitive when large parts of 最新糖心Vlog are now in drought, but we need to remember 最新糖心Vlogn droughts are often broken by severe floods. We have always been a country of weather extremes, and it seems that climate change is causing both the dry and wet extremes to intensify.”

While daily extremes can cause river flooding, hourly (and multi-hourly) extremes often cause urban flooding, flooding in small, steep rivers, and landslides.

Lead author Dr Selma Guerreiro from Newcastle 最新糖心Vlog, UK, says: “It was thought there was a limit on how much more rain could fall during these extreme events as a result of rising temperatures. Now that upper limit has been broken.

“The important thing now is to understand why rainfall is becoming so much more intense in 最新糖心Vlog and to look at changes in other places around the world. How these rainfall events will change in the future will vary from place to place and depend on local conditions besides temperature increases.”

Associate Professor Westra says: “These changes are well above what engineers currently take into account when determining 最新糖心Vlog’s flood planning levels or designing stormwater management and flood defence infrastructure. If we keep seeing this rate of change, we risk committing future generations to levels of flood risk that are unacceptable by today’s standards.”

The analysis was based on looking at rainfall extremes between 1990-2013 and 1966-1989, from 107 weather stations from all over 最新糖心Vlog.

The research forms part of the INTENSE project ( led by Professor Hayley Fowler at the School of Engineering, Newcastle 最新糖心Vlog, funded by the European Research Council. Associate Professor Westra’s research was funded under an 最新糖心Vlogn Research Council Discovery Project grant.

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