A man rows a boat down a flooded residential street in Belgium on Friday July 16, 2021. Severe flooding in Germany and Belgium has turned streets into fast-flowing waterways that have swept away cars and caused houses to collapse.

PHOTOGRAPH BY VALENTIN BIANCHI, AP IMAGES

by Sarah Gibbens • July 16, 2021

Germany and Belgium, as well as parts of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, are grappling with devastating floods from intense rainfall over the past several days. More than 125 were confirmed dead as of Friday.

While scientists are still piecing together how climate change might have influenced this one weather event, they say it shows key characteristics of how storms will be impacted by climate change: higher amounts of rainfall falling for longer.

The rainfall set new records over the Rhine River Basin in Germany, where most of the flooding occurred. Streets became navigable only by boat, homes were inundated, sinkholes opened up, and part of a castle was swept away.

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