A march to warmer weather summer Experts always warn of extreme conditions that will prevail and use models to identify the areas that will be most affected, analyze the factors that affect the variability of weather conditions and Europe is warming faster than the global average.
At the same time, the data shows that the mercury has already reached 50 degrees in 11 countries, mainly in the Middle East and South Asia, with the poorest paying the highest price, where adaptation to extreme conditions is most direct. related to living.
Heatwaves have hit Europe earlier than ever this year, with Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Italy already hit by extreme heat, with some areas seeing temperatures 10 degrees above the season’s average. In fact, the risk of heat wave conditions at the Paris Olympics has organizers sweating for the safety of the athletes.
Where will it hit?
Europe’s weather looks set to be volatile, with forecasters warning that the continent could experience another unusually hot summer, possibly the hottest on record. What the experts will definitely emphasize is that the weather conditions on the European continent are very variable, which makes it difficult to predict exactly where the hottest summer will hit. Southern and eastern Europe could see very hot spots, with moderate rainfall in June and July and drier and more settled weather in most of the continent in August, according to a meteorologist at the Weather and Radar forecasting service.
Transition phase
Europe’s weather variability is said to be influenced by the transition phase between El Nino and La Nina climate events. At the same time, according to scientists, there is one factor that plays an important role in the continent’s increasingly hot summers, and that is human-made climate change.
Europe has been warming twice the global average since 1991, according to the latest data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Climate Service Copernicus (C3S). It is characteristic that 23 of the continent’s 30 most intense heat waves have been recorded since 2000, and five in the last three years.
But more broadly, in the past week, the entire world has experienced, and is still experiencing, a very large-scale heat wave that could help make 2024 the hottest year ever.
China is experiencing the hottest June on record, with temperatures soaring above 50 degrees in some regions. In one area of Paraguay, temperatures of almost 40 degrees were recorded in the southern hemisphere, while extreme heat in the Middle East caused casualties, as in Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,300 pilgrims died in the sweltering heat. about 52 degrees Celsius. Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates had a similar situation with record temperatures.
And in the United States, nearly 100 million citizens were tested in temperatures ranging from 32 degrees in New York to over 45 in Phoenix.
Warning systems
In the wealthiest and most developed areas, adaptation measures to extreme conditions are encouraged and citizens are even guided through early warning systems to cope.
In the next few days, the heat is predicted to continue in North Africa, where Algeria and Tunisia will be affected the most. Eastern European countries such as Romania will also face problems, where there are fears of serious impacts on agriculture and crops.
A study published in Scientific Reports claims that by 2050, heat and heat stress could lead to a 14% reduction in global food production, with up to 1.36 billion people experiencing severe levels of food insecurity.