- Title: Climate change 'most likely' cause for intense Australian floods
- Date: 3rd March 2022
- Summary: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (MARCH 3, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH CENTRE RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, NINA RIDDER, SAYING: "It is a La Nina that is behind all of this, that's basically facilitating these events and that's a natural thing to occur. We have seen those over the past thousands of years, that these cycles happen, so every three to seven years we see a La Nina. What is special this time is that we see two La Ninas in a row and we also know, as I said, with the increase in temperature we know that the atmosphere is holding more water, which means the more water we have, the more water can be dumped on the surface."
- Embargoed: 17th March 2022 05:42
- Keywords: Australia Sydney evacuations floods water weather
- Location: SYDNEY, LOGAN, LISMORE, AUSTRALIA
- City: SYDNEY, LOGAN, LISMORE, AUSTRALIA
- Country: Australia
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Australia,Disaster/Accidents,Floods
- Reuters ID: LVA004164902032022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Authorities in Australia issued more orders for people to leave their homes on Thursday (March 3) after heavy rain triggered flash floods in its largest city, with officials warning of worse to come and some 500,000 people likely to face orders to evacuate.
Australia's east coast has been battered by a severe weather system that has cut off entire towns and submerged hundreds of homes and farms as it has moved south from Queensland state over the past week.
This second year of flooding comes as the La Nina weather pattern, typically associated with increased rainfall, has dominated Australia's east coast over the summer. Dr. Nina Ridder, a research associate at the University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Centre, said that the increase in flooding is "most likely driven by climate change."
Thirteen people have been killed since the deluge began a week ago.
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