ANKARA — At least three people were killed and four remain missing as flash floods swept through Istanbul, stranding hundreds and turning major roads into rivers across the province of nearly 16 million people. Heavy rains that began early Wednesday intensified throughout the day and into the night, flooding lower floors of homes and businesses and disrupting public transportation in Istanbul province, Turkey’s largest financial hub. A 14-year-old boy identified by his initials, M.I., was killed after stepping into floodwaters near the entrance of a parking lot and being electrocuted in Istanbul’s Fatih district, the Istanbul governor’s office said.
A second person, a 34-year-old man identified as S.Y., died after falling into floodwater in the Sariyer district, according to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The body of another person was discovered in Kagithane after being swept away by floodwaters from Sariyer, the governor’s office said later Thursday, adding that efforts were underway to identify the victim and that four people remain missing.
Al-Monitor reports three deaths and four missing in Istanbul's flash floods and gives each victim's case on official sourcing. It never tells the reader that a warming climate makes downpours like this heavier and more frequent, so the flood reads as a freak of weather.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“Heavy rains that began early Wednesday intensified throughout the day and into the night”
Why this matters
Al-Monitor describes the extreme rainfall only as weather that began and intensified. Nowhere in the article does it link the downpour to climate change.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking this deadly flood was an isolated freak of weather with no wider cause.
The context
Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall events more frequent and more intense. The article contains no word on climate or warming at all.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
Heavy rains that began early Wednesday intensified into the night, flooding homes and businesses. Climate change is making extreme downpours like this heavier and more frequent.