In a world of climate chaos we will have to get used to seemingly
contradictory events happening at the same time. Scientists
predict more droughts and more short periods of intense rainfall.
June-August 1990:
- Record monsoon rains in Burma, Bangladesh
and India cause severe flooding and affect
more than three million people.
- February 1991:
- The worst flooding this century hits
southern Iran.
- June 1991:
- 100,000 people are left homeless in Bombay
after the worst June Monsoonal floods in
recorded history.
- June 1991:
- A freak storm brings snow, rain and
hurricane force winds to the desert region
of Chile and turns some of the driest areas
in the world into flood plains.
- June 1991:
- The worst floods this century leave 10
million people homeless along the Yangtze
river, China.
- August 1991:
- The worst flooding in 50 years hits Burma.
- August 1991:
- The Danube reaches record levels in Vienna,
Austria.
- September 1991:
- The southeast Asian monsoonal floods are the
worst on record. Cambodia suffers the most
serious inundation in living memory'.
- December 1991:
- The longest sustained rainfall in 40 years causes
massive flooding in Egypt and Israel.
- July 1992:
- The US 'flood of the century' ravages nine
states along the Mississippi river.
- July 1992:
- The worst flood in 50 years in China's
Fujian province affects over nine million
people.
- September 1993:
- Renewed flooding occurs in the US midwest -
the ground is too saturated to absorb more
rain.
- September 1993:
- Massive flooding in the Swiss, French and
Italian Alps triggers severe mudslides and
submerges towns.
- November 1993:
- There are more floods in the Swiss Alps as Lake
Maggiore reaches its second-highest level this
century.
- November 1993:
- Still more flooding occurs in the US midwest.
'I've been here about 52 years and this is the
worst I've ever seen,' says police chief Bill
Holloway. 'If current trends in emissions of
atmospheric greenhouse gases continue, causing
modest changes in climate, the frequency and
magnitude of floods [in the Mississippi Valley]
could increase' (James Knox, University of
Wisconsin, November 1993).
- December 1993:
- The worst flooding in 60 to 100 years hits
northern Europe. Scores of towns in Germany,
France and Belgium are evacuated. A state of
emergency is declared in the Netherlands.
- December 1993:
- A state of emergency is declared in Kaikoura as
large parts of southern New Zealand are flooded.
