BUENOS AIRES, March 27, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Climate change fueled high temperatures that were partly responsible for extreme rainfall that hit the Argentine city of Bahia Blanca this month, killing at least 16 people, a report said Thursday.

The city of 350,000 people was hit by torrential downpours on March 7 that in just a few hours doubled the annual average.

Two sisters aged one and five swept away with their mother and a man who had tried to save them, are still officially listed as missing.

The deluge flooded the main hospital, tore down bridges, damaged roads and houses and swept away pretty much everything in its path.

Thousands of people were evacuated to temporary shelters.

"The extreme summer temperatures that hit northern Argentina and other parts of South America between December and early March would have been virtually impossible without global warming," said a report by the World Weather Attribution, a network of researchers examining links between environmental change and extreme weather events.

"The same applies to the humid heatwave that immediately preceded the rain event."

It warned such warm summers will become more common in a few decades "if the world continues to warm at the current rate."

The scientists could not conclusively say that the intense rainfall itself had been fueled by human-induced global warming.

It was, however, "the most likely explanation, since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and leads to more intense downpours."

Under the Paris accord on climate change, the world agreed to try and keep warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from the industrial revolution, when humanity started burning large amounts of planet-warming fossil fuels.

Scientists say the risks of climate change increase with every fraction of a degree, and exceeding 1.5C over a decades-long period would greatly imperil ecosystems and human societies.

"As the planet warms and extreme weather becomes more frequent, governments need to prepare for the occurrence of simultaneous events," said the latest report.