Advertisement

Blistering heatwaves ‘could become the new normal’ as climate change takes hold

The sun rises at Cullercoats Bay on Engalnd’s north east coast, Thursday July 26, 2018 (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
The sun rises at Cullercoats Bay on Engalnd’s north east coast, Thursday July 26, 2018 (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

Britain has sweated and complained its way through a record-breaking heatwave this summer – but could this weather become the ‘new normal’?

The Met Office has warned that summer temperatures could regularly hit 38.5C by the 2040s – and experts say that brutal heatwaves will become more regular.

Professor Rowan Sutton of the University of Reading says, ‘No one should be in the slightest surprised that we’re seeing very serious heatwaves and associated impacts in many parts of the world.

‘An increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves has been a robust prediction of climate change science for decades.’

Would you want a heatwave like this every year (Getty)
Would you want a heatwave like this every year (Getty)

‘Warming will continue and there will many more heatwaves, some with greater severity than those occurring now, in the decades to come.’

The Environmental Audit Committee warns that there could be 7,000 heat related deaths annually by the year 2050.

Scientists are wary of attributing single weather events to climate change – but climate change makes extreme weather events more likely.

MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK TODAY

Landmark ‘no fault’ divorce ruling as ‘unhappy’ woman must stay married to husband of 40 years
Well I never! Plymouth couple find 17ft-deep hold under their living room
Police officer acted like a ‘bully in uniform’ after sawing through car windscreen
Sajid Javid faces legal action over death penalty for British IS fighters
Three children aged EIGHT prosecuted for speeding in last 18 months, figures show


In the past 30 years, Earth’s annual temperature has risen 0.54 degrees Celsius according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Polar regions have lost billions of tons of ice; sea levels have been raised by trillions of gallons of water.

The Northern Hemisphere has warmed more than the Southern, the land faster than the ocean.

Climate scientists point to the Arctic as the place where climate change is most noticeable with dramatic sea ice loss, a melting Greenland ice sheet, receding glaciers and thawing permafrost.

The Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world.