As our colleagues in BBC Weather point out, climate scientists have been warning us for years about extreme rainfall events like these as the planet warms. Heavy rain is expected over much of Italy over the next few days, with the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lazio under yellow weather alerts.

The storm that hit central Europe — which unleashed several months’ worth of rain in just a few days — was spawned by a rare combination of meteorological factors.

At least 17 people have been killed in some of the worst floods to hit central Europe in decades as Storm Boris sweeps through the region, dumping well over a month’s worth of rain.