Many factors may cause flooding. But a warming atmosphere resulting from climate change is worsening flooding abound the world, alongside other increasingly extreme natural disasters.

China is no exception. On 20 July, Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province in Central China and home to more than 10 million residents, suffered an extreme downpour that proved the heaviest ever observed in China and among the most significant on record globally. Between 4 and 5 p.m. Tuesday, a staggering 201.9 millimeters (7.95 inches) of rain came down, contributing to a daily rain total that exceeded 24 inches in Zhengzhou.

As a result, at least 25 people have been killed in subway cars and 7 are missing, with over than 100,000 people having been evacuated from Zhengzhou. The casualties are expected to rise as rescue work continues in the days to come. Chinese media call the rainfall “unseen in the last 1,000 years”. Some worry that given the scale of the damage, the post-disaster reconstruction will be particularly challenging for one of the most populous provinces in China.

The calamitous rainfall resulted from a trifecta of meteorological conditions that, intensified by human-caused climate change, resulted in catastrophe. Tropical moisture had been in place across much of southern China. Precipitation extremes like this may become more common in the future as the world continues to warm thanks to climate change.