“It will only get worse”: weather forecasters made an apocalyptic forecast about abnormal temperatures

Scientists warn of deadly extreme heat that is “rapidly intensifying” on a global scale and predict how often heatwaves will now occur. Heatwaves could become common in Europe, North America and China, experts say, so prepare for heat waves in the future.

Forest fires rage in Greece and Algeria, forcing the authorities to evacuate people (including tourists from the popular Greek islands), there are casualties. On the one hand, the Mediterranean climate makes the region particularly susceptible to forest fires. As Sky News climate change correspondent Hannah Thomas-Peter explains, “The Mediterranean is particularly prone to wildfires as mild, wet winters allow vegetation to grow and then hot, dry summers turn it into a very efficient fuel.”

“Forest fires are not uncommon in the Mediterranean during the summer,” said Sky News Science and Technology Editor Tom Clark. – But what is happening in Corfu and Rhodes should be considered in the context of what is happening in the rest of the world. With simultaneous heat waves on three continents. With fire seasons starting earlier and burning more intensely. Early analysis of the Canadian wildfires shows they have destroyed more forest than any previous event, yet they have not even reached the peak of the wildfire season until September.

The world is currently on the cusp of the hottest year in human history. The situation may cool down to the end, but for now we cannot ignore how nature reacts to such extreme climatic conditions.”

Former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King told Sky News that the extreme weather we have seen in Greece and across Europe this summer will only get worse.

He said: “We have to say that this is not such an unusual event in the last 10 years. In my opinion, this is due to the lack of snow and ice in the Arctic, which do not reflect the sun’s rays back into space. In Europe, we are seeing warm air rising from the Sahara desert and providing us with extraordinary temperatures. It will only get worse. We can only expect higher and higher temperatures over time.”

A July heat wave in Europe and North America would be nearly impossible without climate change, according to a new study. The scientists also found that a July heat wave in China was 50 times more likely due to greenhouse gas emissions, Sky News reported. At the beginning of July, temperatures in parts of all three regions mentioned above reached 45 degrees Celsius, which led to massive disruptions in work and created a serious threat to health.

But an analysis by scientists at World Weather Attribution (WWA) has shown that such temperatures are no longer unusual. Their results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, show that heatwaves like those seen in July can now be expected once every 15 years in North America, once every 10 years in Europe and once every five years in China.

Scientists have warned that if the temperature rise reaches 2°C, events like the current heat wave will become even more frequent and occur every two to five years.

The WWA results were obtained using rapid attribution analysis, a relatively new approach.

The WWA found that the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels also caused temperatures to rise during the July heat wave. Due to climate change, the heat in Europe was 2.5 degrees hotter, North America was 2 degrees hotter, and China was 1 degree hotter.

“The result of this study is not surprising,” says Friederike Otto, author of the report and Senior Lecturer in Climatology at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. “The world hasn’t stopped burning fossil fuels, the climate continues to warm, and heatwaves continue to become more extreme. It’s that simple.”

While the full impact of this year’s heat wave will be known for some time, 61,000 people died from heat-related causes in Europe last summer, Sky News recalls.

More needs to be done to prepare for future heatwaves, experts warn.

“We need a cultural shift in how we deal with extreme heat,” said Julie Arrighi, author of the report and director of the Red Cross and Crescent Climate Center. “Extreme heat is deadly and escalates rapidly. It is critical to scale up warning systems, heat action plans and investments in long-term adaptation measures. This includes urban planning and building the resilience of critical systems such as healthcare, electricity, water and transportation.”