Scientists at the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (USA) have shown how global warming affects the frequency of deadly natural disasters, such as Hurricane Florence and the tropical storm Manghut. According to experts, climate change due to human activity will significantly increase precipitation and stormwater runoff. In the future, this will lead to large-scale flooding. This is reported on the website lenta.ru with reference to EurekAlert !.
The researchers analyzed precipitation and sink rates from the Global Runoff Data Center and Global Summary of the Day databases. It has been shown that in recent years both the number of heavy rains and the volumes of storm drains have increased, which are increasingly reaching extreme values. Moreover, changes in stormwater runoff turned out to be more dramatic than for precipitation. This disparity arises from differences in land use, water management and the availability of vegetation cover.
According to scientists, the results of the study will help develop a new system of water management in a changing climate and avoid frequent flooding. In the future, experts plan to study how thermodynamic factors and atmospheric dynamics affect precipitation intensity.
Hurricane Florence formed over the Atlantic on August 31, 2018 and hit the coast of North Carolina on September 14, causing the death of 13 people. "Manghut" was formed on September 7, 2018 and scattered on September 17, hitting the Philippines, Vietnam and southern China. 134 people died from a tropical storm.
