Climate change: At least 34 locations in the UK registered a record high on July 20, the study said.
London:
Climate change caused by human activity makes this month’s record heat wave in the UK at least 10 times more likely, according to research published on Friday.
Eastern England has recorded an all-time high of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Farenheit) and the heat wave caused fires to destroy dozens of homes in London.
Overall, at least 34 locations in the UK recorded record high temperatures on July 20, when the heatwave peaked in Western Europe.
An international team of researchers modeled the likelihood of such extreme heat before the industrial era began in the mid-19th century.
They then compared this with the likelihood of a heatwave in the current climate – that is, the planet is on average almost 1.2 degrees Celsius hotter than it was in pre-industrial times.
They focused on maximum temperatures in the most affected areas of England – central England and eastern Wales – and found that the record heat was generated at least 10 times more by greenhouse gases Man-made causes of global warming.
The study found that extreme heat events across Europe increased even more than climate models estimate.
Computer-generated models estimate that greenhouse gas emissions raised temperatures during the July heat wave by 2 degrees Celsius. But in reality, the heat wave was 4 degrees Celsius hotter than when it was. No artificial heating.
Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute, said: “In Europe and other parts of the world, we are seeing more and more heat waves. Record heat causes extreme temperatures to become hotter than most climate models. for Climate Change.
“It’s a disturbing finding that shows that if carbon emissions are not cut quickly, the consequences of climate change for extreme heat in Europe, which are already extremely dangerous, could be devastating.” worse than we thought before.”
In 2020, scientists at the UK Met Office calculated that the chance of temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in a natural climate – without anthropogenic warming – was about 1 in 1,000. five.
Today that estimate is 1 in 100 years, but the scientists involved in the study say the extreme weather events observed are occurring even faster than models predict. .
Mariam Zachariah, research associate at the Grantham Institute, said: “Even with a conservative estimate, we see a large role for climate change in the UK heatwave.
“In our current climate, which has been altered by greenhouse gas emissions, many people are experiencing events over their lifetime that would have otherwise been nearly impossible. And the longer it takes us to reach zero, the worse the heat wave will get.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
