Intense Summer Rainfall in the Alps Predicted
25th June 2025
Last modified on June 30th, 2025
Short and intense summer rainfall is likely to become more frequent and severe in the future because of global warming according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the University of Padua in Italy said that where temperatures rise by two degrees celsius the Alps could experience episodes of intense summer rainfall twice as often as currently.
If so, flood defences will need to be closely monitored and the threat of landslides will rise.
The reason for the increase is that warm air stores more moisture and thus increases thunderstorm activity.
“With such warming, an intense storm currently expected once every 50 years could occur once every 25 years in the future,” said the scientists.
“As the Alpine environment warms faster than the global average, it is particularly affected,” they added.
The study used summer rainfall data collected from nearly 300 meteorological stations across the European Alps in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and Italy.
Researchers recommend “preparing urban water management systems and other infrastructures” that are ill-suited to handle significant rainfall volumes.
“Promptly updating engineering and urban planning standards” would help mitigate potential risks associated with these events, they added, while also emphasising the need to “limit global warming to 1.5°C or less above current levels”.
Earlier this month three hikers were killed in Austria when they were struck by lightening while descending the Mittagsspitze mountain in the Tirol.
They were a married couple both aged 60, and the husband’s 62-year-old brother.
The authorities said such an incident is extremely rare, but it should not be ruled out as a hazard.
Related Articles:
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- Monitoring rockfalls in the Alps
- Swiss glaciers start summer with low snowpack
- Final death toll in Italian glacier collapse reaches 11
- Glacier collapse on Mt Blanc threatens
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