Scientists have concluded that the recent floods that struck the coasts of West Africa, displacing thousands and resulting in dozens of deaths, were supercharged by climate breakdown. Global heating turned what should have been a routine weather event into a climate catastrophe, they say. The floods occurred in the densely populated coastal regions of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria, where residents expect rain during the rainy season from May to July.
However, the intense rainfall that began on June 20 caught people by surprise, with over 140mm of rain falling in some cities in less than a day. The deluge overwhelmed drainage systems, triggering a series of flash floods that inundated neighborhoods, washed away markets, and submerged roads and infrastructure. At least 34 people died in Ghana, five died in Togo, and 59 have died in Côte d’Ivoire since May.
According to Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, the countries affected must adapt to a frightening new reality. The climate is changing faster than most nations can adapt, Otto said. Adapting to these now common events is critical, but so is reducing emissions much further and faster, to allow us time to keep up with the changes we’ve already put into motion.
The World Weather Attribution team, led by Joyce Kimutai, found that heavy, three-day downpours in the region had increased in intensity by roughly 23% since record-keeping began. They also found that climate change had caused a 4% increase in intensity, making them confident that greenhouse gas emissions had intensified the event. The team warned that with the climate 1.4C hotter than before the industrial use of fossil fuels, they expect rainfall of a similar scale to explode above the Gulf of Guinea every two to four years.
Kimutai emphasized that climate models typically struggle to capture the full scale of tropical precipitation trends when looking at extreme events like this one. However, the fact that they found a significant role for climate change is clear evidence that human-caused warming made this event worse and wetter, with devastating impacts. This study highlights the need for international cooperation on climate justice, as industrialized nations have a responsibility to help nations like Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana adapt to a worsening problem that they didn’t cause.
