Central Europe began counting the cost of deadly and devastating floods caused by Storm Boris, as the European Union pledged billions of euro in aid to affected countries and northern Italy became the latest area to be inundated by torrential rain.

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.

Firefighters in the capital of Pescara in Abruzzo, Italy, reported receiving more than 200 phone calls for assistance after heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding in the area.