It was an extremely hot July across much of the world due to heat waves made worse by climate change. A new study breaks down the role the climate crisis played in sparking record-breaking temperatures this month.
Huge swathes of the northern hemisphere have been muggy for weeks, and heat domes are forming over North America, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Asia this summer. According to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization, the first week of July was likely the hottest week on record on the planet. Temperatures in North America’s Death Valley and parts of northwest China surpassed 50 degrees this month. All previous heat records were also broken in parts of Spain, France, Algeria and Tunisia.
There has been a sweltering heat in large parts of the northern hemisphere for weeks
The study published today focuses on heat waves in the US Southwest, northern Mexico, southern Europe and lowland China when they were at their worst in July. Heat waves in North America and Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to the study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international research collaboration. China’s severe heatwave this month was also about 50 times more likely due to global warming. Climate change had the greatest impact in Europe, where temperatures were 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than without climate change.
The study’s authors used peer-reviewed methods to compare real-world temperatures to what they likely would have been had it not been for the roughly 1.2 degrees of global warming that humans have caused since the Industrial Revolution. Unless the world transitions to clean energy, heat waves due to climate change are expected to become more frequent and intense. Heat waves like the one the world experienced in July could occur every few years if global warming increases to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the study says.
While it’s clear that temperatures have reached new extremes this summer, researchers warn this is quickly becoming the new norm. “There could well be a cool summer ahead if we don’t stop burning fossil fuels,” Friederike Otto, one of the study’s authors and lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, said in a press conference yesterday.
That means it’s time to adapt to a warmer world, and every region the researchers studied is already beginning to do so. This includes creating action plans for heat disasters, designing cities that stay cool, and strengthening power grids to avoid blackouts that can deprive people of air conditioning when they need it most. “Simple measures like watching your neighbors, drinking enough water and finding a cool place during the hottest part of the day can save lives,” the report said.