Over 400,000 people affected by deadly floods and storms in Europe in 2024
The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as reported by The Guardian.
As noted, fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on record.
Dramatic scenes of cars piled up on inundated streets and bridges being ripped away by raging torrents were seen around the continent in 2024, with “high” floods on 30% of the European river network and 12% crossing the “severe” flood threshold, according to the European State of the Climate report.
The two most destructive examples were the deluges that tore through central Europe in September and eastern Spain in October, which accounted for more than 250 of the 335 flooding deaths recorded across the continent in 2024.
Previous studies have found the disasters were made stronger and more likely because of global heating.
Celeste Saulo, director general of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), said “every additional fraction of a degree” of temperature rise mattered, but that societies must also adapt to a hotter world.
South-eastern Europe experienced its longest heatwave on record in July 2024, searing more than half the region for 13 days in a row, while high heat across the continent contributed to destructive wildfires that affected 42,000 people, the report found. About one-quarter of Europe’s burnt area last year came from devastating wildfires in Portugal in September, which burned about 110,000 hectares in a single week.
The report authors highlighted an “unusual” contrast between western and eastern Europe, with the west tending to be wet and cloudy and the east warm and sunny. River flows tended to be above average in western countries and below average in eastern ones.
Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average but has cut its planet-heating pollution faster than other big economies.
Thomas Gelin, a climate campaigner at Greenpeace EU, said the report showed that politicians had failed to hold fossil fuel companies accountable and stop the expansion of their polluting businesses.
