LONDON - Central and northern Europe are expected to have more severe wet winters over the next 100 years.
Thanks to global warming and rising carbon dioxide levels, the torrential rain, fierce winds and record rainfall experienced in England and Wales in the autumn and winter of 2000 and lastyear could be an indication of things to come, say scientists.
"Over the UK and much of Europe, a [extremely wet] winter that maybe would have occurred once every 50 years in the 20th century is likely to occur in Europe once every eight years, assuming COinf2 doubles," said Tim Palmer, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast.
He and Jouni Raisanen of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute based their findings on an analysis of 19 global climate models.
Their predictions were reported in the science journal Nature as severe storms and gales were blamed for killing at least 10 people in northern Europe this week.
The scientists believe that extremely wet Asian summer monsoons will occur more often, increasing the possibility of flooding, especially in Bangladesh.
Palmer blamed higher levels of carbon dioxide for the gloomy predictions.
In another report in Nature, Christopher Milly and colleagues at the US Geological Survey in Princeton, New Jersey, warned more great floods in large river basins worldwide.
