The Genoa low Boris is a low-pressure system from northern Italy that brought heavy rainfall to our part of Europe. It is characterized by intense and prolonged rain and occurs when cold air from the north meets warm and moist air from the Mediterranean Sea. While this is a known and recurring phenomenon, this time it was somewhat different.
Genoa Low Boris is different than usual: "A very rare and exceptional event"
"It was a very rare event in terms of pressure distribution and an exceptional event in terms of rainfall" - writes the international team of scientists from the ClimaMeter research project in their report. They emphasize that cyclones like Boris exhibit deeper pressure minima (-2 hPa) and bring up to 20% more rainfall (4-8 mm per day) than the average for similar past events. They add that some areas in Lower Austria saw between 300 to 350 mm of rainfall in just a few days - two to four times the average for September.
In other parts of Austria, the total rainfall reached 270 mm, while in the mountains, even at lower elevations, there were heavy snowfalls, with Obertauern recording one meter of snow. These excessive rains caused rivers like the Elbe, Oder, Morava, and Salzach to overflow, leading to widespread floods. In Poland, the southern regions of Silesia and Lower Silesia were particularly hard hit
- the report says. The scientists assess that the characteristics of the Genoa low Boris "can largely be attributed to human-induced climate change." Money.pl adds that after causing massive river floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the low unexpectedly turned back towards Italy and Croatia.
Polish scientists: We warned about this. Appeal to parliamentarians
Last week, Polish scientists wrote about how one week we face heatwaves and drought, and the next, catastrophic flooding. "This is not an isolated deviation from the norm. This is the new reality" - they stressed in a special letter to the Speaker of the Sejm and Polish parliamentarians.
We warned about this, yet we see no effective political initiative to protect citizens from the effects of climate change.
The appeal was signed by scientists from institutions such as the University of Warsaw, the University of Silesia, and the Warsaw School of Economics.
The past few days in Poland are a textbook example of a week in the era of a changing climate
- wrote the researchers, who are demanding a parliamentary debate on how to address the climate crisis. In their view, this dangerous "new reality" will lead to various consequences, from lowering the quality of life and raising living costs, to threatening the health and lives of citizens, causing irreversible damage to nature in Poland, increasing economic costs, and leading to social destabilization.
