Climate change made Europe’s June heatwave possible, scientists say
World Weather Attribution says the heat gripping Europe is the region’s most severe June heatwave on record and would have been far cooler decades ago.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
2 min read
Europe’s current heatwave is the region’s most severe recorded for June and would not have occurred without human-driven climate change, according to World Weather Attribution. The finding matters because the group’s analysis links the week’s dangerous heat to warming caused by burning coal, oil and gas.
Millions of people in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe have faced extreme temperatures this week, AFP reported. Daytime readings have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit, in many places.
The heat was moving east on Friday, AFP reported, putting Germany and central Europe in line for conditions like those already seen farther west. The heat has killed dozens in western Europe, strained health services and put pressure on the economy, according to AFP.
Heat now far more likely
World Weather Attribution said a comparable June heatwave in the climate of 1976, another year marked by prolonged high temperatures in Europe, would have been about 3.5C cooler. In the climate of 2003, the group estimated, a similar event would have been about 2C cooler.
The researchers said severe heat has increased quickly within living memory. Their report found that events like this are now tens to hundreds of times more likely than they were in 2003 and were virtually impossible 50 years ago.
“This event would not have been possible in June without climate change,” Theodore Keeping of Imperial College London, the study’s lead author, told reporters.
The group examined nearly 850 European cities and found that about 45 percent had either broken, or were expected to break, their all-time June heat stress records. Heat stress measures the strain that high temperatures place on the human body.
Friederike Otto, a cofounder of World Weather Attribution, said the weather system behind the episode was not especially rare. “The weather pattern itself is not particularly unusual, but the temperatures are — or at least they used to be without human-induced climate change,” she said.
Scientists point to fossil fuels
The planet has warmed by about 1.4C compared with pre-industrial levels, driven by the use of fossil fuels, according to AFP. Scientists say that warming is making heatwaves and other extreme weather events more frequent and more intense.
World Weather Attribution said cutting fossil fuel use rapidly is essential to avoid still higher temperatures and further consequences. The group said limiting global warming remains central to reducing the worst effects of climate change.
The June heatwave is Europe’s second such event of the year, AFP reported. In May, an early-season spell of heat brought conditions more typical of high summer to central and western Europe.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.