Last Friday (21 June 2024) torrential rainfall combined with snowmelt due to high temperatures to cause havoc in the Alps.
Zermatt was cut off completely for a day and in the southern French Alps, the village of Bérarde, near Les 2 Alpes was devastated by floods.
The river turned into a gigantic torrent, sweeping away everything in its path.
An expert in torrential hydraulics at 'Eaux Torrents et Rivières de Montagne' (ETRM), Vincent Koulinski, explained that the conditions were due to a conjunction of "a long wet period which caused heavy snow at altitude and incessant rain," with rain falling at higher altitudes due to global warming.
This caused flooding in areas that had never been flooded since the last glacial period 10,000 years ago.
He noted in an interview with France 3 that it's impossible to know how to approach events like this: "The only lastingly effective tool we have is to limit climate change".
Photos (c) France 3