On a tour of the devastated area on Wednesday, South African President Cyril Ramafosa said the heavy rainfall was further evidence of the effects of climate change. “This catastrophe is part of climate change. “It tells us that climate change is serious, it’s here,” Ramaphosa said. The province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa recorded the heaviest rainfall of a day in more than 60 years, according to the country’s national meteorological service. “We are injured, we can not even eat. “I did not eat all day because I do not know what to do,” said Boniswa Shangase, a resident of Durban whose house was swept away by the floods. As the water rose rapidly around the house on the hillside where she raised her two daughters, Shangase jumped out of a window before retreating. “I’m homeless now,” he told the BBC. “We can no longer live here.” A ruined bridge in Durban, South Africa. (Rogan Ward / Reuters) Numerous scientific studies have found that rising global temperatures increase the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and that as a result, some areas are now at greater risk of sudden flooding due to extreme rainfall. “Extreme rainfall is expected to intensify with global warming in large parts of the world, as the concentration of atmospheric water vapor that supplies water for rainfall increases according to saturation concentrations at a rate of about 6-7% per degree increase in temperature according to the Clausius-Clapeyron thermodynamic relationship, “said a 2020 study by Hossein Tabari, which investigates how climate change is affecting the hydrological cycle. The study added, however, that where the global intensification will take place depends on a number of factors. The story goes on While the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that the western part of South Africa is expected to see drought in the coming years, the eastern regions of the country are facing the possibility of an increased number of extreme rainfall. “Future warming is likely to be greater within the semi-arid regions of the Sahara and central South Africa,” said a study by researchers at the University of Oslo. “The projected changes in rainfall will lead to drought throughout southern Africa and an increase in rainfall in parts of East Africa.” Flood disaster north of Durban. (Marco Longari / AFP via Getty Images) A vast continent, Africa will see a number of effects on climate change, the IPCC said in its latest report, such as the crippling drought that has endangered the lives of 350,000 children in Somalia and displaced more than 700,000 people in the past three years. By 2030, the IPCC warned in its report, “half of Africa’s continent could be displaced as a result of climate change.” In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where power lines were shattered by torrential rains, bridges destroyed and thousands left homeless, this week’s storms provided another preview of the future of climate change. “The heavy rains that have fallen on our land in recent days have caused untold destruction and unleashed enormous damage to lives and infrastructure,” the province said in a message posted on its Facebook page.
