The current European heatwave is “unmistakably” caused by climate change, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution group and Dutch weather institute KNMI. Scientists say that today’s extreme temperatures would have been practically impossible fifty years ago. If the same weather pattern had hit in 1976—when the world was 1.1°C cooler—daytime temperatures would have been about 3.5°C lower than they are now.
The climate is changing so fast that today’s daytime heat is already ten times more likely than it was during the major 2003 heatwave. Even worse, the sweltering nights keeping people awake are now a hundred times more likely than they were 23 years ago. Experts emphasize that while the weather system itself is normal, the record-breaking temperatures are not. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are making heatwaves hotter, longer, and much more frequent, while natural factors like El Niño played no role in this current spell.
This extreme weather is putting dangerous pressure on cities across Northern, Western, and Central Europe, including the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Nearly half of the 854 European cities monitored have hit their highest ever “heat stress level.” Climate experts from the Red Cross warn that millions of people are living and working in buildings that simply were not built for this level of heat, pointing to a dangerous gap between rapid global warming and how slowly our infrastructure is adapting.
@anp | NEWS BRAINPORT
