The full extent of the damage is still being assessed on the southwest coast of the province, and a local climatologist believes the rains that caused the washouts could become more common due to climate change.

Joel Finnis, a climatologist with the Department of Geography at MUN, says heavy amounts of rain is consistent with a warming world.

He explains that something that’s been expected with climate change is that features of certain areas will become amplified – meaning dry places will get drier, and wet places will get wetter.

Finnis says they’re seeing that kind of amplification in storms like the one that hit the west coast.

He states that is something the scientific community has been warning about for some time.

He says they want to keep the earth from warming 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels, which may not seem like a big change but it can carry significant impacts.

He says the increase changes how matter is moved throughout the earth’s climate system, which can produce extreme weather events.