Experts warn These floods are just the beginning
No more "floods of the century": experts expect Switzerland to experience more flooding and debris flows in the future. The reason for this is the climate crisis.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Climate researcher Manuela Brunner predicts "that floods of the century will occur much more frequently than before".
- Floods are influenced by three aspects: the warmth of the air, snowmelt and soil saturation.
- The fact that there were thunderstorms in the Alpine region but not in the lowlands is due to Saharan dust: "These are coincidences that cannot be predicted," says expert Christoph Hegg.
Storms like the ones currently hitting Switzerland will occur more frequently in the future.
"Our models also show that climate change will lead to floods of the century occurring much more frequently than before," predicts Manuela Brunner in Blick.
The ETH professor, who also works at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, names three factors that are driving this development: "For every degree by which the atmosphere warms up, it can absorb seven percent more moisture." And this in turn offers more potential for "intense rainfall and heavy thunderstorms".
Heavy showers, together with the melting snow, would continue to promote flooding, explains the 34-year-old. The third aspect is soil saturation: If it rains a lot for a long time, as is the case now, the earth can no longer store any more liquid. This favors debris flows and floods, the expert knows.
"Coincidences that cannot be predicted"
Switzerland must therefore prepare itself for an increase in storms with consequences such as those in the Maggia Valley: "Where precipitation is the only or main factor in flooding, there will be more and more extreme incidents."
Christoph Hegg from the Research Institute for Forests, Snow and Landscape at SRF adds that it was surprising that the thunderstorms have recently raged more in the Alpine region and less in the lowlands.
"Apparently the Saharan dust dampened the warming in the Central Plateau, so there were fewer severe thunderstorms than the weekend before," says Hegg.
"These are coincidences that cannot be predicted." With regard to flooding, he adds: "We have to be aware that there is no absolute certainty."
