July saw punishing heat across the Mediterranean, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in southern Europe and North Africa. A new report from climate scientists confirms that this extreme heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of global warming.
The heatwave had deadly consequences, claiming over 20 lives in a single day in Morocco, sparking wildfires in Greece and the Balkans, and causing significant strain on athletes competing in the Summer Olympic Games in France. The World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, renowned for its peer-reviewed methods of linking specific extreme events to climate change, provided a clear verdict in this case.
“The extreme temperatures reached in July would have been virtually impossible if humans had not warmed the planet by burning fossil fuels,” stated the WWA report, authored by five researchers. The analysis focused on the average July temperature in a region encompassing Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. It revealed that the heat recorded in Europe was up to 3.3°C hotter due to climate change.
In Paris, the sweltering heat persisted this week, with athletes competing in the Olympic Games facing temperatures in the mid-30s. Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and a co-author of the study, highlighted the increasing frequency of such events. “Extremely hot July months are no longer rare events,” she said. “In today’s climate… Julys with extreme heat can be expected about once a decade.”
This heatwave occurred during a month when global temperatures soared to their highest levels on record, with the four hottest days ever observed by scientists all falling in July. The past 13 months have been the warmest such period on record, surpassing the 1.5°C limit that scientists warn must be maintained to prevent catastrophic climate change.
The findings underscore the urgent need for action to mitigate climate change, as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe due to the continued burning of fossil fuels.
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