Study finds Pakistan flood made worse by climate change

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Climate change helped to worsen the devastating floods in Pakistan, scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a new report.

The country received more than three times its usual rainfall in August. The devastating floods have affected over 33 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes and killed nearly 1,500 people.

Landslides and flash floods swamped many areas, and the river Indus burst its banks.

The researchers found that the rainfall over the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan was 75% more than intense than it would have been if the climate had not warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius.

"The majority of models and observations we have analyzed show that intense rainfall has become heavier as Pakistan has warmed," the researchers said. "Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50% for the five-day event definition."

While there is some uncertainty as to the exact effect climate change had on the monsoons, there is no doubt that climate change played a role in the crisis, said Friederike Otto, one of the report's authors.

"What we saw in Pakistan is exactly what climate projections have been predicting for years. It's also in line with historical records showing that heavy rainfall has dramatically increased in the region since humans started emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," Otto told the BBC.

"And our own analysis also shows clearly that further warming will make these heavy rainfall episodes even more intense."

The researchers also found a 1% chance in any given year of the devastating floods occurring again.