Cascade of climate-driven triggers behind Nepal’s deadly flood, scientists say

A World Weather Attribution team says Nepal’s devastating August flood was not caused by a single event but by a cascade of climate‑driven factors: a Langtang Lirung rock–ice collapse likely weakened by a 2015 earthquake, thawing permafrost and glacier melt that increased water and rock pressure, and unusually warm regional conditions that intensified slope destabilization. July–August temperatures are about 1.5°C warmer locally and annual temperatures around 2°C higher, with the zero-degree line rising in the Himalayas. The flood roared more than 20 miles downstream, killing at least 1,300 and leaving more than 5,000 missing. The scientists say human‑caused climate change preconditioned the disaster and warn that current early‑warning systems couldn’t have foreseen it; cutting fossil fuel pollution is needed to avert more such events.