GoKawiilPeople get relief from a water hose on 25 June in Cologne, Germany, as a record-setting heatwave pummels the nation.Credit: Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty
As the second unprecedented heatwave in Europe this year smashes temperature records, many people are asking the same questions: is this the new normal? Has Europe’s climate fundamentally changed?
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Scientists who spoke to Nature say that a European heatwave lasting four or five days, with London approaching 40 °C, is an anomaly. “It’s nothing short of phenomenal,” notes Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. But researchers also say that Europeans can expect to see more of these events in the future as global warming continues.
“Heatwaves are here to stay, until we turn the tap off to global emissions,” says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK. “They’re more frequent, they’re more intense and they’re lasting longer.”
The risks are severe. In France — which recorded its hottest day ever this week, reaching 44.3 °C in the town of Pissos — at least 54 people have died from the heat or from drowning in waterways while trying to cool off.
What researchers don’t necessarily agree on is how quickly Europe’s climate shifted from one of cool, pleasant summers, during which residents could leave their windows open, to one dominated by extreme heat and questions about whether to buy an air conditioner.
New highs
An analysis released today1 examined temperatures in 854 cities across Europe — home to 30% of the population — and found that nearly half of them broke or will break their all-time heat-stress records this month (see ‘Epic heatwave’). Every city examined in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Luxembourg has seen unprecedented highs according to the study, which was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, an international organization that studies extreme weather events.
Source: Ref. 1/World Weather Attribution
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