THE current heatwave in Spain and Europe would have been ‘virtually impossible’ 50 years ago with climate change fuelling extreme heat.
That’s the conclusion from scientists involved with the World Weather Attribution(WWA) group.
An initial assessment of the hot and humid weather over much of north, western and central Europe found it was the most severe heatwave ever recorded across the region.
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UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the ‘savage heatwave has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it’.
Lead WWA researcher, Dr Theodore Keeping, from London’s Imperial College, said: “The science of how climate change is worsening heatwaves is settled.”
“Continued fossil fuel emissions are directly responsible for the disruption people are experiencing,” Keeping continued.”
He added: “The speed of change is startling. Every few years we are seeing heat records shattered in Europe. This year it has been in consecutive months.”
Spain recorded its hottest June days on record (23 and 24 June) with temperatures above 40°C in several locations, according to the state meteorological agency Aemet.
The WWA analysis found both the daytime highs and overnight temperatures seen during the current heatwave would be virtually impossible at this time of year under the climate of 50 years ago.
A similar heatwave occurring in the climate of 1976 would be 3.5C cooler, the scientists added.
They also said the sweltering overnight temperatures keeping many people awake are about 100 times more likely today than they were just 23 years ago.
That was during the deadly 2003 European heatwave, and the daytime peaks are about 10 times more likely.
The humidity seen in the current heatwave is a growing danger, they warned.
The experts said nearly half (45%) of 854 cities across 30 European countries are breaking or expected in late June to break their ‘wet bulb globe temperature’ record – a measure of heat stress and the body’s ability to cool itself through sweating.
The heat is being driven by a blocked high-pressure pattern known as a heat dome, that traps hot air over Europe and draws up warm air from the Sahara.
The scientists used observed and forecast temperature data to analyse the hottest three-day period across a swathe of Europe under the heat dome and compared it with similar extreme periods in a cooler climate.
They found the record-breaking heat was unequivocally driven by climate change.
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