Rainstorms and floods in parts of coastal West Africa are expected to grow more severe as the climate continues to warm. And deforestation may be making the situation even worse, according to new research.
A devastating mudslide ripped through Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown in August 2017, burying homes and killing at least 1,100 people. Triggered by weeks of unusually heavy rain, it was one of the worst environmental disasters the region had experienced in years.
In tropical areas, trees tend to have a cooling effect. When these forests are destroyed, the surrounding area warms up.In some places, like the Amazon rainforest, studies have found that deforestation actually causes the area to dry out. Trees help add moisture to the atmosphere, while deforestation has the opposite effect.
The researchers analyzed three decades of data to carry out their study, focusing on a lush strip of southern West Africa spanning from Guinea to Nigeria. They looked at both land-use change and satellite observations of thunderstorms across the region. The new study highlights “a second, and previously unrecognized, impact of deforestation on flooding, as experienced in some of the least resilient cities on Earth,” the authors write.
"Climate models might suggest a modest increase in their frequency of storms," Taylor said. "But actually, locally where there's deforestation going on, it might be much larger."
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