European heat wave: what is extreme weather? How does it relate to climate change?

Humans around the world are experiencing intense heat waves, deadly floods and mountain fires, all of which are the result of climate change.

Temperatures in Britain and many parts of Europe exceeded 40 degrees Celsius this month, causing traffic disruptions and water shortages.

Since the beginning of the industrial era, the emissions from burning fossil fuels have been absorbing heat in the atmosphere. These extra heat are not evenly distributed throughout the earth, and will also lead to the outbreak of extreme weather events.

Unless global emissions are reduced, the cycle will continue.

The following are four aspects of climate change.

1. Stronger and longer heat wave
djn order to understand the influence of small changes in average temperature, we should think of them as a parabola, with extreme cold and extreme heat at both ends and general temperature in the middle.

The slight movement of the middle part means that the whole curve will hit two extremes - so the heat waves become more frequent and extreme.

On July 19, the temperature in Britain reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time.

The Met Office estimates that due to climate change, the extreme high temperature caused by the recent heat wave is 10 times more likely to occur today than in the past, and the situation may get worse.

"Decades later, this summer may actually be a cool summer," said Professor Frederick Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

The Met Office also pointed out that the current heat wave is not only hotter, but may last longer. The duration of the warm period has doubled in the past 50 years.

Heat waves may also become longer and stronger due to another weather phenomenon, the thermal dome.



In areas of high pressure, hot air is pushed down and trapped somewhere, causing the temperature of the whole continent to soar.



When the storm distorts the high-speed air flow, it is a bit like pulling a skipping rope and watching the air churn along it.



These air currents will slow everything down significantly, and then the atmospheric system will be trapped in the same place for many days - as happened in India earlier this year.



India and Pakistan have experienced five consecutive heatwaves this year, and Jacob abad in Pakistan recorded a high temperature of 49 degrees Celsius in May.



In the southern hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil all witnessed a historic heat wave in January - the hottest day on record was reported in many regions.



In the same month, the temperature in Onslow, Western Australia, reached 50.7 degrees Celsius, equalling the highest temperature reliably recorded in the southern hemisphere.



Last year, North America also suffered a long heat wave. The whole town of Lytton in western Canada was burned down by a fire, and the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius, nearly 5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record.



According to the world weather attribution cooperated by international climate scientists, such a serious heat wave would be almost impossible without climate change.



One theory points out that the high temperature in the Arctic causes the high-speed air flow to slow down, which increases the possibility of the hot cover phenomenon.

2. Long term drought

As the heat wave becomes stronger and lasts longer, the drought will become more and more serious.



There will be less rain before and after the heat wave, so the surface water and water supply will dry up faster. This means that the time for the surface to warm up is shorter, thus warming the air above it, leading to a stronger heat wave.



The demand for water in human life and agriculture has further increased the pressure of water supply, making the shortage of water resources more serious.

Climate change and heat waves



Most meteorologists attribute the more common high-temperature weather to climate change. The Met Office estimates that climate change has increased the likelihood of heat waves tenfold.



At present, the global average temperature is 1 degree Celsius higher than that before industrialization, but according to the data of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), this temperature alone has made us live in the hottest period in 125000 years.



As we all know, the reason behind all this is the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the use of coal, oil, natural gas and other fuels - it traps hot air in the atmosphere. According to IPCC, it pushes the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the highest level in 2million years.



The goal set by the United Nations is to control the climate rise below 1.5C higher than that in the pre industrial era, so as to prevent the most dangerous impact of climate change - to achieve this, global carbon emissions will peak in 2025.



According to the estimation of the International Energy Agency, energy carbon emissions increased by 6% in 2021, the highest ever; According to IPCC, carbon emissions should be reduced by at least 43% by the end of 2030; Then by 2050, the net carbon emissions of the whole world must be zero.



But even if the 1.5C emission reduction target is achieved within two and a half years, the summer in Britain will still be getting hotter - according to the British health and safety agency, the heat wave will add an additional 2000 deaths to the UK in 2020; According to officials of the climate change Commission, if the government does nothing, this number will triple again in the next few decades.

3. More wildfire fuel



Wildfires may be caused by direct human factors, but natural factors may also play an important role.



Climate change has led to extreme and sustained heat wave cycles, causing more and more water loss from the surface and vegetation.



This dry and flammable condition provides fuel for the fire, which can spread at an incredible speed.



In some parts of the northern hemisphere, the mountain fire season begins earlier than usual. This is due to the lack of rainfall and out of season warm weather, which worsened in July.



Recently, it was reported that serious mountain fires occurred in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Albania, thousands of residents were evacuated, and hundreds of people died.



Last summer, in Canada, the mountain fire caused by the heat wave broke out rapidly, and even formed its own atmospheric movement system, forming a pyrocumulus cloud. These huge clouds produced lightning and caused more fires.



In recent decades, the frequency of large-scale mountain fires has increased sharply.



According to climate central, an independent organization composed of scientists and journalists, wildfires covering more than 10000 acres (40 square kilometers) in the western United States occur seven times more frequently than in the 1970s.



4. More extreme rainfall



Under the normal weather cycle, hot weather will form water vapor in the air, which will turn into water droplets and form rainfall.



However, the warmer the weather, the more water vapor in the atmosphere. The result is more water droplets and stronger rainfall, sometimes in a shorter time and smaller area.



This year, some areas in Spain and eastern Australia have suffered floods. Brisbane reached 80% of its annual rainfall in just six days, while Sydney set a record of more than average annual rainfall in just over three months.



Peter greck, a water resource expert at the National Academy of Sciences, said the rainfall was related to climate change elsewhere.



"When the drought level rises in some areas, such as Siberia and the western United States, the water will fall to other places, and some smaller areas will increase the severity of floods," he said.



The weather around the world is always changeable, but climate change makes these changes more extreme.



The challenge now is not only to limit human impact on the atmosphere, but also to adapt to and cope with the extreme weather we are already facing.

Temperatures in Britain and many parts of Europe exceeded 40 degrees Celsius this month, causing traffic disruptions and water shortages.

Since the beginning of the industrial era, the emissions from burning fossil fuels have been absorbing heat in the atmosphere. These extra heat are not evenly distributed throughout the earth, and will also lead to the outbreak of extreme weather events.

Unless global emissions are reduced, the cycle will continue.

The following are four aspects of climate change.

1. Stronger and longer heat wave
jd
In order to understand the influence of small changes in average temperature, we should think of them as a parabola, with extreme cold and extreme heat at both ends and general temperature in the middle.

The slight movement of the middle part means that the whole curve will hit two extremes - so the heat waves become more frequent and extreme.

On July 19, the temperature in Britain reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time.

The Met Office estimates that due to climate change, the extreme high temperature caused by the recent heat wave is 10 times more likely to occur today than in the past, and the situation may get worse.

"Decades later, this summer may actually be a cool summer," said Professor Frederick Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

The Met Office also pointed out that the current heat wave is not only hotter, but may last longer. The duration of the warm period has doubled in the past 50 years.

Heat waves may also become longer and stronger due to another weather phenomenon, the thermal dome.



In areas of high pressure, hot air is pushed down and trapped somewhere, causing the temperature of the whole continent to soar.



When the storm distorts the high-speed air flow, it is a bit like pulling a skipping rope and watching the air churn along it.



These air currents will slow everything down significantly, and then the atmospheric system will be trapped in the same place for many days - as happened in India earlier this year.



India and Pakistan have experienced five consecutive heatwaves this year, and Jacob abad in Pakistan recorded a high temperature of 49 degrees Celsius in May.



In the southern hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil all witnessed a historic heat wave in January - the hottest day on record was reported in many regions.



In the same month, the temperature in Onslow, Western Australia, reached 50.7 degrees Celsius, equalling the highest temperature reliably recorded in the southern hemisphere.



Last year, North America also suffered a long heat wave. The whole town of Lytton in western Canada was burned down by a fire, and the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius, nearly 5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record.



According to the world weather attribution cooperated by international climate scientists, such a serious heat wave would be almost impossible without climate change.



One theory points out that the high temperature in the Arctic causes the high-speed air flow to slow down, which increases the possibility of the hot cover phenomenon.

2. Long term drought

As the heat wave becomes stronger and lasts longer, the drought will become more and more serious.



There will be less rain before and after the heat wave, so the surface water and water supply will dry up faster. This means that the time for the surface to warm up is shorter, thus warming the air above it, leading to a stronger heat wave.



The demand for water in human life and agriculture has further increased the pressure of water supply, making the shortage of water resources more serious.

Climate change and heat waves



Most meteorologists attribute the more common high-temperature weather to climate change. The Met Office estimates that climate change has increased the likelihood of heat waves tenfold.



At present, the global average temperature is 1 degree Celsius higher than that before industrialization, but according to the data of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), this temperature alone has made us live in the hottest period in 125000 years.



As we all know, the reason behind all this is the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the use of coal, oil, natural gas and other fuels - it traps hot air in the atmosphere. According to IPCC, it pushes the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the highest level in 2million years.



The goal set by the United Nations is to control the climate rise below 1.5C higher than that in the pre industrial era, so as to prevent the most dangerous impact of climate change - to achieve this, global carbon emissions will peak in 2025.



According to the estimation of the International Energy Agency, energy carbon emissions increased by 6% in 2021, the highest ever; According to IPCC, carbon emissions should be reduced by at least 43% by the end of 2030; Then by 2050, the net carbon emissions of the whole world must be zero.



But even if the 1.5C emission reduction target is achieved within two and a half years, the summer in Britain will still be getting hotter - according to the British health and safety agency, the heat wave will add an additional 2000 deaths to the UK in 2020; According to officials of the climate change Commission, if the government does nothing, this number will triple again in the next few decades.

3. More wildfire fuel



Wildfires may be caused by direct human factors, but natural factors may also play an important role.



Climate change has led to extreme and sustained heat wave cycles, causing more and more water loss from the surface and vegetation.



This dry and flammable condition provides fuel for the fire, which can spread at an incredible speed.



In some parts of the northern hemisphere, the mountain fire season begins earlier than usual. This is due to the lack of rainfall and out of season warm weather, which worsened in July.



Recently, it was reported that serious mountain fires occurred in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Albania, thousands of residents were evacuated, and hundreds of people died.



Last summer, in Canada, the mountain fire caused by the heat wave broke out rapidly, and even formed its own atmospheric movement system, forming a pyrocumulus cloud. These huge clouds produced lightning and caused more fires.



In recent decades, the frequency of large-scale mountain fires has increased sharply.



According to climate central, an independent organization composed of scientists and journalists, wildfires covering more than 10000 acres (40 square kilometers) in the western United States occur seven times more frequently than in the 1970s.



4. More extreme rainfall



Under the normal weather cycle, hot weather will form water vapor in the air, which will turn into water droplets and form rainfall.



However, the warmer the weather, the more water vapor in the atmosphere. The result is more water droplets and stronger rainfall, sometimes in a shorter time and smaller area.



This year, some areas in Spain and eastern Australia have suffered floods. Brisbane reached 80% of its annual rainfall in just six days, while Sydney set a record of more than average annual rainfall in just over three months.



Peter greck, a water resource expert at the National Academy of Sciences, said the rainfall was related to climate change elsewhere.



"When the drought level rises in some areas, such as Siberia and the western United States, the water will fall to other places, and some smaller areas will increase the severity of floods," he said.



The weather around the world is always changeable, but climate change makes these changes more extreme.



The challenge now is not only to limit human impact on the atmosphere, but also to adapt to and cope with the extreme weather we are already facing.

Temperatures in Britain and many parts of Europe exceeded 40 degrees Celsius this month, causing traffic disruptions and water shortages.

Since the beginning of the industrial era, the emissions from burning fossil fuels have been absorbing heat in the atmosphere. These extra heat are not evenly distributed throughout the earth, and will also lead to the outbreak of extreme weather events.

Unless global emissions are reduced, the cycle will continue.

The following are four aspects of climate change.

1. Stronger and longer heat wave
jd
In order to understand the influence of small changes in average temperature, we should think of them as a parabola, with extreme cold and extreme heat at both ends and general temperature in the middle.

The slight movement of the middle part means that the whole curve will hit two extremes - so the heat waves become more frequent and extreme.

On July 19, the temperature in Britain reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time.

The Met Office estimates that due to climate change, the extreme high temperature caused by the recent heat wave is 10 times more likely to occur today than in the past, and the situation may get worse.

"Decades later, this summer may actually be a cool summer," said Professor Frederick Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

The Met Office also pointed out that the current heat wave is not only hotter, but may last longer. The duration of the warm period has doubled in the past 50 years.

Heat waves may also become longer and stronger due to another weather phenomenon, the thermal dome.



In areas of high pressure, hot air is pushed down and trapped somewhere, causing the temperature of the whole continent to soar.



When the storm distorts the high-speed air flow, it is a bit like pulling a skipping rope and watching the air churn along it.



These air currents will slow everything down significantly, and then the atmospheric system will be trapped in the same place for many days - as happened in India earlier this year.



India and Pakistan have experienced five consecutive heatwaves this year, and Jacob abad in Pakistan recorded a high temperature of 49 degrees Celsius in May.



In the southern hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil all witnessed a historic heat wave in January - the hottest day on record was reported in many regions.



In the same month, the temperature in Onslow, Western Australia, reached 50.7 degrees Celsius, equalling the highest temperature reliably recorded in the southern hemisphere.



Last year, North America also suffered a long heat wave. The whole town of Lytton in western Canada was burned down by a fire, and the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius, nearly 5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record.



According to the world weather attribution cooperated by international climate scientists, such a serious heat wave would be almost impossible without climate change.



One theory points out that the high temperature in the Arctic causes the high-speed air flow to slow down, which increases the possibility of the hot cover phenomenon.

2. Long term drought

As the heat wave becomes stronger and lasts longer, the drought will become more and more serious.



There will be less rain before and after the heat wave, so the surface water and water supply will dry up faster. This means that the time for the surface to warm up is shorter, thus warming the air above it, leading to a stronger heat wave.



The demand for water in human life and agriculture has further increased the pressure of water supply, making the shortage of water resources more serious.

Climate change and heat waves



Most meteorologists attribute the more common high-temperature weather to climate change. The Met Office estimates that climate change has increased the likelihood of heat waves tenfold.



At present, the global average temperature is 1 degree Celsius higher than that before industrialization, but according to the data of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), this temperature alone has made us live in the hottest period in 125000 years.



As we all know, the reason behind all this is the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the use of coal, oil, natural gas and other fuels - it traps hot air in the atmosphere. According to IPCC, it pushes the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the highest level in 2million years.



The goal set by the United Nations is to control the climate rise below 1.5C higher than that in the pre industrial era, so as to prevent the most dangerous impact of climate change - to achieve this, global carbon emissions will peak in 2025.



According to the estimation of the International Energy Agency, energy carbon emissions increased by 6% in 2021, the highest ever; According to IPCC, carbon emissions should be reduced by at least 43% by the end of 2030; Then by 2050, the net carbon emissions of the whole world must be zero.



But even if the 1.5C emission reduction target is achieved within two and a half years, the summer in Britain will still be getting hotter - according to the British health and safety agency, the heat wave will add an additional 2000 deaths to the UK in 2020; According to officials of the climate change Commission, if the government does nothing, this number will triple again in the next few decades.

3. More wildfire fuel



Wildfires may be caused by direct human factors, but natural factors may also play an important role.



Climate change has led to extreme and sustained heat wave cycles, causing more and more water loss from the surface and vegetation.



This dry and flammable condition provides fuel for the fire, which can spread at an incredible speed.



In some parts of the northern hemisphere, the mountain fire season begins earlier than usual. This is due to the lack of rainfall and out of season warm weather, which worsened in July.



Recently, it was reported that serious mountain fires occurred in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Albania, thousands of residents were evacuated, and hundreds of people died.



Last summer, in Canada, the mountain fire caused by the heat wave broke out rapidly, and even formed its own atmospheric movement system, forming a pyrocumulus cloud. These huge clouds produced lightning and caused more fires.



In recent decades, the frequency of large-scale mountain fires has increased sharply.



According to climate central, an independent organization composed of scientists and journalists, wildfires covering more than 10000 acres (40 square kilometers) in the western United States occur seven times more frequently than in the 1970s.



4. More extreme rainfall



Under the normal weather cycle, hot weather will form water vapor in the air, which will turn into water droplets and form rainfall.



However, the warmer the weather, the more water vapor in the atmosphere. The result is more water droplets and stronger rainfall, sometimes in a shorter time and smaller area.



This year, some areas in Spain and eastern Australia have suffered floods. Brisbane reached 80% of its annual rainfall in just six days, while Sydney set a record of more than average annual rainfall in just over three months.



Peter greck, a water resource expert at the National Academy of Sciences, said the rainfall was related to climate change elsewhere.



"When the drought level rises in some areas, such as Siberia and the western United States, the water will fall to other places, and some smaller areas will increase the severity of floods," he said.



The weather around the world is always changeable, but climate change makes these changes more extreme.



The challenge now is not only to limit human impact on the atmosphere, but also to adapt to and cope with the extreme weather we are already facing.