BEIJING: Summer has just begun in the Northern Hemisphere but a brutal heat wave is already gripping parts of Europe, China and the United States, where record temperatures expected this weekend are a stark illustration of the dangers of a warming climate.
Extreme heat advisories have been issued for more than 100 million Americans with the National Weather Service forecasting particularly dangerous conditions in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. At the same time, several European nations, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, are also baking in searing temperatures. The mercury may soar as high as 48 degrees Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, the European Space Agency said “potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.” North Africa has also been sweltering and the Moroccan meteorological service issued an extreme heat red alert for southern parts of the country.
Some regions of China, including the capital Beijing, are also experiencing sweltering temperatures, and the rain on Wednesday and Thursday shortly cool down the capital city.
Last month was already the hottest June on record, according to the U.S. space agency NASA and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Extreme weather resulting from a warming climate is “unfortunately becoming the new normal,” warns Secretary-General Petteri Taalas of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Excessive heat is one of the deadliest meteorological events, according to the WMO. One recent study estimates over 61,000 people died from heat during Europe’s record-breaking summer last year. A contributing factor to the higher temperatures this year may be the climate pattern known as El Nino. El Nino events, which occur every two to seven years, are marked by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific near the Equator, and last about nine to 12 months.
North America has already seen a series of extreme meteorological events this summer, with smoke from wildfires that continue to burn out of control in Canada causing extraordinary air pollution across large parts of the United States. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
