Flash flooding incited by torrential rain killed at least 41 people and displaced thousands more in eastern Indonesia over the weekend. Thirty-five of those people died on Adonara island in East Nusa Tenggara province when a mudslide slammed into dozens of homes in Lamenele village just after midnight. At least 27 people were still missing across the island nation. Heavy overnight rains caused rivers to burst their banks and cut five bridges on the island and other landslides blocked roads and took out power lines, all hampering relief efforts. Extreme precipitation is a clear signal of human-caused climate change — global warming increases ocean evaporation and the amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold, effectively creating and filling a bigger bucket that can dump more water when it rains.

Landslides and flooding kill dozens in Indonesia every year. This is the second 40-fatality event in 2021 so far. (AP, New York Times $, Reuters; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation