5 June 2016, Climate News Network, Europe’s floods come as no surprise. Scientists have warned that the extra moisture in warmer air will mean more intense rainfall, but floods still leave governments unprepared. At least 18 people have lost their lives in central Europe as severe floods engulf the continent from France to Ukraine. In Paris the River Seine reached 6.1 metres (20 feet) above normal, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes. If the downpours and swollen rivers came as a surprise, they shouldn’t have done. Not only are there historical precedents for disastrous floods. There have beengraphic recent warnings too, spelling out the growing likelihood that the warming climate will make bouts of flooding and other extreme weather more frequent. Last March a study reported in the journal Nature said climate change was already driving an increase in extremes of rainfall and snowfall across most of the globe, even in arid regions. The study said the trend would continue as the world warmed. The role of global warming in unusually large rainfall events in countries from the United Kingdom to China has been hotly debated. But this latest study showed that climate change is driving an overall increase in rainfall extremes. Its lead author, Markus Donat, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said: “In both wet and dry regions, we see these significant and robust increases in heavy precipitation.” “It is probably a good idea to invest in infrastructure that helps in dealing with heavier precipitation” Warm air holds more moisture, and global warming is already increasing the odds of extreme rainfall. “The paper is convincing and provides some useful insights,” said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “What is particularly new in this article is the demonstration of such a signal for observed changes in dry regions.” Read More here