Flood of centuries: fire brigade in continuous use - climate alignment escalated!

Flood of centuries: fire brigade in continuous use - climate alignment escalated!

The extreme weather conditions in Austria are increasing: According to Geosphere Austria's report, there have been precipitation in Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria in the past few days, which are up to 160 percent higher than with earlier extreme weather events. From September 12th to 16th, 2024, more than 100 millimeter rain was recorded in the majority of Austria, while certain regions reached almost 400 millimeters. Such rainfall are historical and desire for direct measures, as the past flood disaster, which resulted in around 27,000 missions of the fire brigade, reported noe.orf.at .

catastrophic consequences of the floods

In 2024, the number of technical operations by the fire brigade in Lower Austria rose dramatically due to the weather extreme, from 44,868 to 77,532, which means an increase of over 72 percent. Firefighters from all federal states came together to counteract the enormous challenges of the flood of the century. Over 960,000 hours were worked this year when 31,644 people were deployed to cope with the effects of the flood. Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner emphasized that the fire brigade members were challenged to an extent that was never seen before, which was also reflected in the total of 7.68 million working hours.

The climate researchers from Geosphere warn that the increase in heavy rain, also due to VB weather conditions, is favored by climate change. These rare weather conditions mean that low pressure areas unload large amounts of rain in a short time. Marc Olefs, head of the climate research department at Geosphere, find that the intensity of these weather phenomena has increased and that the number of days has increased by 30 to 40 percent with extreme rainfall since the 1960s. Therefore, there are currently extensive assignment studies to clarify these developments in order to better understand the influence of climate change on the weather conditions, as