How February 2022 redefines extreme floods in Australia
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
In February 2022, eastern Australia experienced an extreme flood due to a combination of intense rainfall and close to saturation initial soil water conditions. It resulted in record-breaking water levels and flood volumes, leading to Australia’s largest total insurance claim for a single flood event. Here we analyse the physical factors underlying this event and compare them with a large dataset of floods in Australia dating back to 1950. Our findings show that February 2022 had the largest impact on design flood volumes with a 1% annual exceedance probability, which are expected to increase by 16% on average across the affected region. Additionally, this flood prompted major changes in national flood risk management, including upgrades to flood warning networks and a comprehensive review of the flood insurance sector.
