Yahoo News Heatwave which blasted Europe ‘was made five times more likely by climate change’
The blistering heatwave which blasted France and other European countries with record-breaking heat last week was made far, far more likely by climate change, experts have said.
Experts from World Weather Attribution say that such heatwaves are at least five times more likely due to climate change - and could even be 100 times likelier.
The researchers say that such heatwaves are now 4C hotter than they would have been a century ago.
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Scientists say measurements show that heatwaves in Europe are becoming more frequent.
Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said ‘monthly heat records all over the globe occur five times as often today as they would in a stable climate’.
Last month was the hottest June since 1880, according to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The World Weather Attribution researchers wrote, ‘Every heatwave occurring in Europe today is made more likely and more intense by human-induced climate change. How much more depends very strongly on the event definition: location, season, intensity and duration.
‘The observations show a very large increase in the temperature of these heatwaves. Currently such an event is estimated to occur with a return period of 30 years, but similarly frequent heatwaves would have likely been about 4 ºC cooler a century ago.
‘In other words, a heatwave that intense is occurring at least 10 times more frequently today than a century ago.’
In Paris, charity organisations patrolled the streets to provide homeless people with water, while local authorities organised air-conditioned public places where people could seek shelter from the heat.
Meteorologists said hot winds from the Sahara Desert brought the scorching weather to Europe.
