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Europe braces itself for stronger storms

Smart City Chirine Etezadzadeh

Climate change forces Western European countries to become more resilient against storms. Image source: Shutterstock (#437757325).

After more and more devastating storms in parts of Europe, scientists are now figuring out how to respond to storms that are becoming stronger on the continent. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute estimates that because of warmer sea surface temperatures, more hurricanes or super-storms are forcing countries to prepare.

“We anticipate an increase in severe storms of predominantly tropical origin reaching western Europe as part of 21st-century global warming,” Reindert Haarsma at the institute had to say.

The European Commission’s office, as a result, is funding several projects through the Horizon 2020 program to track and measure weather patterns. “We need the best scientific climate research to inform experts, so they can plan to avoid future disasters. It can’t just be about Ophelia. We have to be speaking about the next storms, too,” says Paul Van der Linden, a climate scientist at United Kingdom’s Metrological Office.

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