Changing climate shifts timing of European floods

Gunter Bloschl, Julia Hall, Juray Parajka, Rui A. P. Perdigao, Bruno Merz, Berit Arheimer, Thomas Kjeldsen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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Abstract

A warming climate is expected to have an impact on the magnitude and timing of river floods; however, no consistent large-scale climate change signal in observed flood magnitudes has been identified so far. We analyzed the timing of river floods in Europe over the past five decades, using a pan-European database from 4262 observational hydrometric stations, and found clear patterns of change in flood timing. Warmer temperatures have led to earlier spring snowmelt floods throughout northeastern Europe; delayed winter storms associated with polar warming have led to later winter floods around the North Sea and some sectors of the Mediterranean coast; and earlier soil moisture maxima have led to earlier winter floods in western Europe. Our results highlight the existence of a clear climate signal in flood observations at the continental scale.
LanguageEnglish
Pages588-590
JournalScience
Volume357
Issue number6351
DOIs
StatusPublished - 11 Aug 2017

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climate
winter
warming
climate signal
snowmelt
river
soil moisture
climate change
coast
temperature
Europe

Keywords

  • Flooding
  • Hydrology

Cite this

Bloschl, G., Hall, J., Parajka, J., Perdigao, R. A. P., Merz, B., Arheimer, B., & Kjeldsen, T. (2017). Changing climate shifts timing of European floods. Science, 357(6351), 588-590. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan2506

Changing climate shifts timing of European floods. / Bloschl, Gunter; Hall, Julia; Parajka, Juray; Perdigao, Rui A. P.; Merz, Bruno; Arheimer, Berit; Kjeldsen, Thomas.

In: Science, Vol. 357, No. 6351, 11.08.2017, p. 588-590.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Bloschl, G, Hall, J, Parajka, J, Perdigao, RAP, Merz, B, Arheimer, B & Kjeldsen, T 2017, 'Changing climate shifts timing of European floods' Science, vol. 357, no. 6351, pp. 588-590. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan2506
Bloschl G, Hall J, Parajka J, Perdigao RAP, Merz B, Arheimer B et al. Changing climate shifts timing of European floods. Science. 2017 Aug 11;357(6351):588-590. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan2506
Bloschl, Gunter ; Hall, Julia ; Parajka, Juray ; Perdigao, Rui A. P. ; Merz, Bruno ; Arheimer, Berit ; Kjeldsen, Thomas. / Changing climate shifts timing of European floods. In: Science. 2017 ; Vol. 357, No. 6351. pp. 588-590.
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Access to Document

  • aan2506_ArticleContent_v4

    This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Sciencev.357 on 11/8/17 DOI:10.1126/science.aan2506.

    Accepted author manuscript, 634 KB