Attribution of the heavy rainfall events leading to severe flooding in Western Europe during July 2021

Jordis S. Tradowsky (), Sjoukje Y. Philip, Frank Kreienkamp, Sarah F. Kew, Philip Lorenz, Julie Arrighi, Thomas Bettmann, Steven Caluwaerts, Steven C. Chan, Lesley De Cruz, Hylke de Vries, Norbert Demuth, Andrew Ferrone, Erich M. Fischer, Hayley J. Fowler, Klaus Goergen, Dorothy Heinrich, Yvonne Henrichs, Frank Kaspar, Geert Lenderink, Enno Nilson, Friederike E. L. Otto, Francesco Ragone, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Roop K. Singh, Amalie Skålevåg, Piet Termonia, Lisa Thalheimer, Maarten van Aalst, Joris Van den Bergh, Hans Van de Vyver, Stéphane Vannitsem, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Bert Van Schaeybroeck, Robert Vautard, Demi Vonk and Niko Wanders
Additional contact information
Jordis S. Tradowsky: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Sjoukje Y. Philip: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Frank Kreienkamp: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Sarah F. Kew: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Philip Lorenz: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Julie Arrighi: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Thomas Bettmann: State Environmental Agency Rhineland-Palatinate
Steven Caluwaerts: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Steven C. Chan: Met Office Hadley Centre
Lesley De Cruz: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Hylke de Vries: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Norbert Demuth: State Environmental Agency Rhineland-Palatinate
Andrew Ferrone: Administration of Technical Agricultural Services
Erich M. Fischer: ETH Zurich
Hayley J. Fowler: Newcastle University
Klaus Goergen: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Dorothy Heinrich: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Yvonne Henrichs: State Environmental Agency Rhineland-Palatinate
Frank Kaspar: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Geert Lenderink: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Enno Nilson: Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG)
Friederike E. L. Otto: Imperial College
Francesco Ragone: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Sonia I. Seneviratne: ETH Zurich
Roop K. Singh: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Amalie Skålevåg: University of Potsdam
Piet Termonia: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Lisa Thalheimer: University of Oxford
Maarten van Aalst: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Joris Van den Bergh: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Hans Van de Vyver: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Stéphane Vannitsem: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Geert Jan van Oldenborgh: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
Bert Van Schaeybroeck: Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Robert Vautard: CNRS
Demi Vonk: University of Twente
Niko Wanders: Utrecht University

Climatic Change, 2023, vol. 176, issue 7, No 11, 38 pages

Abstract: Abstract In July 2021 extreme rainfall across Western Europe caused severe flooding and substantial impacts, including over 200 fatalities and extensive infrastructure damage within Germany and the Benelux countries. After the event, a hydrological assessment and a probabilistic event attribution analysis of rainfall data were initiated and complemented by discussing the vulnerability and exposure context. The global mean surface temperature (GMST) served as a covariate in a generalised extreme value distribution fitted to observational and model data, exploiting the dependence on GMST to estimate how anthropogenic climate change affects the likelihood and severity of extreme events. Rainfall accumulations in Ahr/Erft and the Belgian Meuse catchment vastly exceeded previous observed records. In regions of that limited size the robust estimation of return values and the detection and attribution of rainfall trends are challenging. However, for the larger Western European region it was found that, under current climate conditions, on average one rainfall event of this magnitude can be expected every 400 years at any given location. Consequently, within the entire region, events of similar magnitude are expected to occur more frequently than once in 400 years. Anthropogenic climate change has already increased the intensity of the maximum 1-day rainfall event in the summer season by 3–19 %. The likelihood of such an event to occur today compared to a 1.2 $$^{\circ }$$ ∘ C cooler climate has increased by a factor of 1.2–9. Models indicate that intensity and frequency of such events will further increase with future global warming. While attribution of small-scale events remains challenging, this study shows that there is a robust increase in the likelihood and severity of rainfall events such as the ones causing extreme impacts in July 2021 when considering a larger region.

Keywords: Extreme event attribution; Rainfall; Flood; Ahr; Erft; Meuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-023-03502-7

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