{"id":270854,"date":"2026-01-29T22:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270854\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T22:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:22:07","slug":"storm-chandra-floods-made-three-times-more-likely-by-climate-change-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270854\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm Chandra floods made three times more likely by climate change \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate change made this week\u2019s floods almost three times more likely to occur, analysis by Maynooth University<\/a> and Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> has found. <\/p>\n

The researchers said the high volume of rain that fell in the seven days up to and including Storm Chandra<\/a> turned the heavy but \u201cnot particularly remarkable\u201d rainfall during the storm into a \u201cdevastating\u201d flood event. <\/p>\n

They found the magnitude of the rainfall over the full week was 9 per cent greater than it would have been in the cooler Earth that existed before climate change. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have expected similar seven-day rainfall to happen once in every 150 years,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday, though, the event is expected to happen once in every 60 years, representing an almost three-fold increase in likelihood.\u201d <\/p>\n

The analysis is the latest in a series of \u201cattribution\u201d studies carried out by Wasitus, a joint project of Met \u00c9ireann and the Icarus climate research centre at Maynooth University. <\/p>\n

Attribution studies seek to determine the role climate change plays in extreme weather events. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne point of considerable concern highlighted by our study is that we no longer necessarily need to experience a remarkable single day rainfall extreme for it to cause devastating effects,\u201d said Wasitus researcher, Lionel Swan. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue to warm the planet, we are seeing evidence that longer duration rainfall events, such as the seven-day accumulation shown in our study, is becoming far more intense and frequent, leading to a greater flood risk.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Storm Chandra commuter chaos is made far worse by a dysfunctional transport systemOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The study focused on counties Louth, Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford, which were worst hit by Storm Chandra and the subsequent flooding. <\/p>\n

\u201cStorm Chandra hit the eastern Irish coast when soils were saturated and rivers high after several days of high rainfall,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis made an otherwise relatively uninteresting rainfall event far more devastating from a flooding perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n

As the planet warms, the atmosphere holds more moisture, about 7 per cent more for every one degree of warming. <\/p>\n

This leads not only to more rain, which saturates soils, but also more intense downpours that make it even more difficult for land and rivers to contain. <\/p>\n

A similar sequence of events occurred last November when Storm Claudia<\/a> struck the east and southeast of the country. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018No one was pumping the water\u2019: Rathfarnham deals with Storm Chandra aftermathOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The attribution study then found climate change made the rainfall and flooding that followed twice as likely. <\/p>\n

\u201cSoils have been consistently saturated since early autumn,\u201d the latest report says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment was therefore primed for potential flooding.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dr Claire Bergin, who led both studies, said human-caused climate change from the burning of fossil fuels was making its impact clearly felt. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, twice this storm season, we have seen flooding and potential flooding as a result of rain storms falling on previously saturated soils,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur studies show that rainfall events in Ireland are becoming heavier, with more rain falling. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase in rainfall magnitude can be directly linked with excess pollution caused by humans. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do we need to shore up flood defences but we also need to reduce global warming.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climate change made this week\u2019s floods almost three times more likely to occur, analysis by Maynooth University and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,76685,1191,82,131111],"class_list":{"0":"post-270854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-maynooth-university","12":"tag-met-eireann","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-storm-chandra"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}