Devastating pictures from the BBC.

Around 200 people are dead and hundreds more remain missing after catastrophic flooding across large swaths of western Europe. Tens of thousands are unable to return to their homes or without access to power and drinking water. The flooding, caused by unprecedented rainfall, has hit parts of western Germany, as well as neighbouring Belgium and the Netherlands.

Swollen rivers have burst their banks. “It is shocking – I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that has been unleashed,” Chancellor Merkel told reporters (France 24). Survivors of catastrophic flooding in Europe describe haunting screams and ‘tsunami’ of water (ABC). More coverage from CNN.

The scale of the flooding has alarmed scientists. Dieter Gerten, professor of global change climatology and hydrology at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told the Guardian: “We seem to be not just above normal but in domains we didn’t expect in terms of spatial extent and the speed it developed.”

There has also been extreme weather in the UK, with severe flooding in London, Edinburgh, Peterborough and Norwich.

Meanwhile, the ongoing heatwave in America is forcing the country to confront climate reality (the Guardian).