Soldiers and residents in southwestern Poland are laying sandbags near swollen rivers around the city of Wroclaw to protect homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.

Climate change is influencing extreme weather events like the flooding across six European countries that has led to mass evacuations of cities as the waters continue to rise.

The storm that hit central Europe — which unleashed several months’ worth of rain in just a few days — was spawned by a rare combination of meteorological factors.