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Indian Express
05-07-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
How extreme heat has become Europe's new climate reality
Extreme heat has stifled Europe. The heatwave, which began in late June, has affected thousands of people across the continent, bringing record-breaking temperatures and unbearable conditions. So far, eight people, including a young child, have died due to the heat. While mercury in Spain's Huelva region touched 46 degrees Celsius — a new national record for June — temperatures in France rose to 40 degrees Celsius. The Health Ministry in Italy put 20 cities, including Rome and Milan, under the highest-level heat alert as it expected temperatures to reach 37 to 38 degrees Celsius. In Germany, more than 200 warnings regarding extreme heat were issued between June 30 and July 3. Central European countries such as Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Slovenia also issued top-level red alerts. Soaring temperatures have also triggered wildfires in countries such as Turkey, Greece, Portugal, and Italy. Meanwhile, drought conditions have emerged in Central Europe. None of these events come as a surprise for climate scientists, who have been raising alarm bells about the increase in warming of Europe for years. The situation is set to get worse, and experts are now calling for more action to stop tens of thousands of deaths due to extreme heat. The fastest-warming continent Europe is the fastest-warming continent as it is witnessing an average temperature rise of around 0.5 degrees Celsius per decade compared to 0.2 degrees Celsius globally. Last year, the global annual average temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with the five-year running average currently above 1.3 degrees Celsius. However, temperatures in Europe in the past five years averaged around 2.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. One of the reasons behind the continent's rapid warming is its proximity to the Arctic, which is by far the fastest-warming part of Earth. As a result, the region contributes to the soaring temperatures in Europe, making it more vulnerable to heatwaves. Another reason could be feedback systems such as dried-out soil moisture. French climatologist Robert Vautard told Le Monde, 'In continental regions such as Europe, high temperatures cause rapid warming of soils, with evapotranspiration, then drying out… This leads to positive feedback: Dried-out soils send more sensible heat back into the atmosphere, which warms up and further aggravates aridity.' Scientists suggest that changes in the behaviour of the jet stream — the rapid currents encircling the planet from west to east — could also be playing a role. Some studies have shown that Europe is becoming more vulnerable to something called the 'double jet stream', when a jet stream temporarily splits in two. This results in an area of weak winds and high-pressure air between the two branches that causes extreme heat. Double jet streams become more common when land mass heats up in early summer. Need for adaptation Marisol Yglesias Gonzalez, technical officer for climate change and health at the World Health Organization (WHO), recently said in a statement that in Europe, '[i]t's no longer a question of if we will have a heatwave, but how many are we going to experience this year and how long will they last'. The continent is already experiencing an increase in the frequency of heatwaves in recent years. According to the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Europe Regional Climate Centre, Of the 30 most severe heatwaves to hit Europe between 1950 and 2023, 23 of them occurred since 2000. This has led to thousands of deaths on the continent over the years. For instance, in 2023, Europe counted 47,690 excess deaths due to heat, a study, published in the journal Nature Medicine last year, revealed. This was the second-highest heat-related mortality burden since 2015, only surpassed by the year 2022 which saw more than 60,000 estimated deaths. Another study, published in January this year in the journal Nature Medicine, said the number of deaths would increase dramatically in Europe if countries did not prioritise climate adaptation soon enough. Due to these reasons, the WHO last week highlighted the need to be prepared for heatwaves. However, European countries currently seem to be lagging on this front. A 2022 survey found that only 21 of the 57 countries in the WHO Europe region had a national heat-health action plan.
Express Tribune
09-04-2025
- Climate
- Express Tribune
World's 'exceptional' heat streak lengthens into March
Daytime temperatures may rise by 3°C to 4°C above normal levels in Karachi. PHOTO: PIXABAY Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other. The world meanwhile saw the second-hottest March in the Copernicus dataset, sustaining a near-unbroken spell of record or near-record-breaking temperatures that has persisted since July 2023. Since then, virtually every month has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution, when humans began burning massive amounts of coal, oil and gas. March was 1.6C above pre-industrial times, extending an anomaly so unusual that scientists are still trying to fully explain it. "That we're still at 1.6C above preindustrial is indeed remarkable," said Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. "We're very firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change," she told AFP. Scientists had predicted the extreme run of global temperatures would subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in early 2024, but they have stubbornly lingered well into 2025. "We are still experiencing extremely high temperatures worldwide. This is an exceptional situation," Robert Vautard, a leading scientist with the United Nations' climate expert panel IPCC, told AFP. Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Climate change is not just about rising temperatures but the knock-on effect of all that extra heat being trapped in the atmosphere and seas by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.
Observer
08-04-2025
- Science
- Observer
World's 'exceptional' heat streak lengthens into March
Paris: Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other. The world meanwhile saw the second-hottest March in the Copernicus dataset, sustaining a near-unbroken spell of record or near-record-breaking temperatures that has persisted since July 2023. Since then, virtually every month has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution, when humans began burning massive amounts of coal, oil and gas. March was 1.6C above pre-industrial times, extending an anomaly so unusual that scientists are still trying to fully explain it. "That we're still at 1.6C above preindustrial is indeed remarkable," said Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. "We're very firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change," she told AFP. Scientists had predicted the extreme run of global temperatures would subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in early 2024, but they have stubbornly lingered well into 2025. "We are still experiencing extremely high temperatures worldwide. This is an exceptional situation," Robert Vautard, a leading scientist with the United Nations' climate expert panel IPCC, told AFP. 'Climate breakdown' Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Climate change is not just about rising temperatures but the knock-on effect of all that extra heat being trapped in the atmosphere and seas by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Warmer seas mean higher evaporation and greater moisture in the atmosphere, causing heavier deluges and feeding energy into storms. This also affects global rainfall patterns. March in Europe was 0.26C above the previous hottest record for the month set in 2014, Copernicus said. Some parts of the continent experienced the "driest March on record and others their wettest" for about half a century, said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the Copernicus climate monitor. Bill McGuire, a climate scientist from University College London, said the contrasting extremes "shows clearly how a destabilised climate means more and bigger weather extremes". "As climate breakdown progresses, more broken records are only to be expected," he told AFP. Elsewhere in March, scientists said that climate change intensified a blistering heatwave across Central Asia and fuelled conditions for extreme rainfall which killed 16 people in Argentina. - Puzzling heat - The spectacular surge in global heat pushed 2023 and then 2024 to become the hottest years on record. Last year was also the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5C -- the safer warming limit agreed by most nations under the Paris climate accord. This single year breach does not represent a permanent crossing of the 1.5C threshold, which is measured over decades, but scientists have warned the goal is slipping out of reach. According to Copernicus, global warming reached an estimated 1.36C above pre-industrial levels in October last year. If the 30-year trend leading up to then continued, the world would hit 1.5C by June 2030. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures from one year to the next. But they are less certain about what else might have contributed to this record heat spike, or how this impacts our understanding about how climate might behave in future. Vautard said there were "phenomena that remain to be explained" but the exceptional temperatures still fell within the upper range of scientific projections of climate change. Experts think changes in global cloud patterns, airborne pollution and Earth's ability to store carbon in natural sinks like forests and oceans could be among factors contributing to the planet overheating. Copernicus uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its climate calculations. Its records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data -- such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons -- allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further in the past. Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's 'exceptional' heat streak lengthens into March
Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other. The world meanwhile saw the second-hottest March in the Copernicus dataset, sustaining a near-unbroken spell of record or near-record-breaking temperatures that has persisted since July 2023. Since then, virtually every month has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution, when humans began burning massive amounts of coal, oil and gas. March was 1.6C above pre-industrial times, extending an anomaly so unusual that scientists are still trying to fully explain it. "That we're still at 1.6C above preindustrial is indeed remarkable," said Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. "We're very firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change," she told AFP. Scientists had predicted the extreme run of global temperatures would subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in early 2024, but they have stubbornly lingered well into 2025. "We are still experiencing extremely high temperatures worldwide. This is an exceptional situation," Robert Vautard, a leading scientist with the United Nations' climate expert panel IPCC, told AFP. - 'Climate breakdown' - Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Climate change is not just about rising temperatures but the knock-on effect of all that extra heat being trapped in the atmosphere and seas by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Warmer seas mean higher evaporation and greater moisture in the atmosphere, causing heavier deluges and feeding energy into storms. This also affects global rainfall patterns. March in Europe was 0.26C above the previous hottest record for the month set in 2014, Copernicus said. Some parts of the continent experienced the "driest March on record and others their wettest" for about half a century, said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the Copernicus climate monitor. Bill McGuire, a climate scientist from University College London, said the contrasting extremes "shows clearly how a destabilised climate means more and bigger weather extremes". "As climate breakdown progresses, more broken records are only to be expected," he told AFP. Elsewhere in March, scientists said that climate change intensified a blistering heatwave across Central Asia and fuelled conditions for extreme rainfall which killed 16 people in Argentina. - Puzzling heat - The spectacular surge in global heat pushed 2023 and then 2024 to become the hottest years on record. Last year was also the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5C -- the safer warming limit agreed by most nations under the Paris climate accord. This single year breach does not represent a permanent crossing of the 1.5C threshold, which is measured over decades, but scientists have warned the goal is slipping out of reach. According to Copernicus, global warming reached an estimated 1.36C above pre-industrial levels in October last year. If the 30-year trend leading up to then continued, the world would hit 1.5C by June 2030. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures from one year to the next. But they are less certain about what else might have contributed to this record heat spike, or how this impacts our understanding about how climate might behave in future. Vautard said there were "phenomena that remain to be explained" but the exceptional temperatures still fell within the upper range of scientific projections of climate change. Experts think changes in global cloud patterns, airborne pollution and Earth's ability to store carbon in natural sinks like forests and oceans could be among factors contributing to the planet overheating. Copernicus uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its climate calculations. Its records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data -- such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons -- allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further in the past. Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years. np-klm-bl/gil
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's 'exceptional' heat streak lengthens into March
Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday, prolonging an unprecedented heat streak that has pushed the bounds of scientific explanation. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving rainfall extremes across a continent warming faster than any other. The world meanwhile saw the second-hottest March in the Copernicus dataset, sustaining a near-unbroken spell of record or near-record-breaking temperatures that has persisted since July 2023. Since then, virtually every month has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution, when humans began burning massive amounts of coal, oil and gas. March was 1.6C above pre-industrial times, extending an anomaly so unusual that scientists are still trying to fully explain it. "That we're still at 1.6C above preindustrial is indeed remarkable," said Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. "We're very firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change," she told AFP. Scientists had predicted the extreme run of global temperatures would subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in early 2024, but they have stubbornly lingered well into 2025. "We are still experiencing extremely high temperatures worldwide. This is an exceptional situation," Robert Vautard, a leading scientist with the United Nations' climate expert panel IPCC, told AFP. - 'Climate breakdown' - Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Climate change is not just about rising temperatures but the knock-on effect of all that extra heat being trapped in the atmosphere and seas by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Warmer seas mean higher evaporation and greater moisture in the atmosphere, causing heavier deluges and feeding energy into storms. This also affects global rainfall patterns. March in Europe was 0.26C above the previous hottest record for the month set in 2014, Copernicus said. Some parts of the continent experienced the "driest March on record and others their wettest" for about half a century, said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the Copernicus climate monitor. Bill McGuire, a climate scientist from University College London, said the contrasting extremes "shows clearly how a destabilised climate means more and bigger weather extremes". "As climate breakdown progresses, more broken records are only to be expected," he told AFP. Elsewhere in March, scientists said that climate change intensified a blistering heatwave across Central Asia and fuelled conditions for extreme rainfall which killed 16 people in Argentina. - Puzzling heat - The spectacular surge in global heat pushed 2023 and then 2024 to become the hottest years on record. Last year was also the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5C -- the safer warming limit agreed by most nations under the Paris climate accord. This single year breach does not represent a permanent crossing of the 1.5C threshold, which is measured over decades, but scientists have warned the goal is slipping out of reach. According to Copernicus, global warming reached an estimated 1.36C above pre-industrial levels in October last year. If the 30-year trend leading up to then continued, the world would hit 1.5C by June 2030. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures from one year to the next. But they are less certain about what else might have contributed to this record heat spike, or how this impacts our understanding about how climate might behave in future. Vautard said there were "phenomena that remain to be explained" but the exceptional temperatures still fell within the upper range of scientific projections of climate change. Experts think changes in global cloud patterns, airborne pollution and Earth's ability to store carbon in natural sinks like forests and oceans could be among factors contributing to the planet overheating. Copernicus uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its climate calculations. Its records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data -- such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons -- allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further in the past. Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years. np-klm-bl/gil
