Torrential rain fell on Hong Kong recently, breaking a long-held record and disrupting life in one of the most densely populated urban centers in the world.
The "black rainstorm warning," issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, represents the most severe level of rainstorm alert in Hong Kong. It's triggered when torrential rain is causing or likely to cause serious flooding and major disruptions.
In early August, the HKO issued this dire warning not once, but four times in only eight days, setting a new benchmark for the most times the city's highest weather alert has been issued in a single year, according to China's state news agency Xinhua, per Reuters.
A deluge that produced record rainfall in and around Hong Kong, considered a leading destination for cutting-edge tech and world-class education, dumped 13.8 inches of rain for the most rainfall in a single August day in over 140 years.
The flooding forced the closing of schools and courts in Hong Kong. Officials also closed several roads as they turned into rivers. Steep terrain surrounds much of urban Hong Kong, and officials reported more than a dozen landslides citywide. Fortunately, there have been no reports of deaths or injuries with this most recent flooding.
The record-breaking rainfall follows another flooding event that hit China's Hebei province hard in late July. Torrential rain contributed to a landslide that left at least four people dead. That round of unusually heavy rain prompted flood warnings in Beijing, China's capital, and at least 11 provinces.
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A study published in Nature found that our overheating planet has increased the number of landslides in the juncture of the Alpine, Pannonian, and Mediterranean regions in the region of western Slovenia.
"The ongoing and projected changes in the frequency and intensity of rainfall events due to global warming are expected to modify the frequency, abundance, and distribution of landslides of different types," the authors of the study concluded.
Another study by non-profit Climate Central titled "Extreme Precipitation in a Warming Climate" found that the most extreme precipitation days have intensified in every major U.S. region as our world warmed from 1958 to 2021.
Heat-trapping gases are like steroids for our atmosphere, supercharging Earth's water cycle, intensifying flooding events. "For every 1°F of warming the air can hold an extra 4% of moisture, increasing the chances of heavier downpours that contribute to the risk of flash floods," notes Climate Central researchers.
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Across the U.S., episodes of extreme daily rainfall have grown more common since the 1980s, with hourly rainfall rates rising 13% on average since 1970, according to Climate Central's analysis of 150 locations.
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