Climate Hazard Flipping in Northern Italy

WaterAid, along with Bristol and Cardiff Universities, studied 40 years of drought and flooding hazard events across Burkino Faso; Ethiopia; Ghana; Mozambique; Pakistan and Uganda. This study included Italy, as a European comparison. It broadly found that areas that had historically experienced frequent droughts, were now also more prone to flooding. Conversely, regions, formerly prone to flooding, now had more regular droughts. They called this phenomenon 'climate hazard flipping' (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/14/extreme-drought-in-northern-italy-mirrors-climate-in-ethiopia). The study found that the number of Northern Italy's extreme droughts, has doubled in the last 20 years. It suggests its climate now mirrors that of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Such are the impact of climate pressures. Climate change is not something that just happens in far-away countries!