Record-breaking extremes that scientists can’t explain: Extreme heatwaves
A new study led by Columbia University found that intense heatwaves are very frequent and more severe, such locations around the world which never experienced those conditions in the past. The heatwaves have now registered temperatures, becoming a threat to human life, agriculture, and ecosystems.
There are reports indicating that 2023 is the warmest year. Overall the average global climate was approximately 2.12° greater than the base 20th century.
This breaks the previous record, which fell in 2016 and already is being equaled by 2024, according to a report led by researchers from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory that said the extreme temperature events mentioned in climate models are still not perfectly predictable, raising questions regarding the dependability of available models with regard to their estimation about the link between global warming and the risks of climate change for the region. The research points out that the world has new “heatwave hotspots.” These are extreme temperature events, starting from central China to Japan, Korea, and the Arabian Peninsula to parts of Australia to its northmost places even up to the Northwest Territories of Canada and even Greenland.
This is worrying since most such places would hardly face such elevated temperatures, and their infrastructure and biota are probably not designed to withstand fiery heat.
Recently, Germany, France, and the UK have encountered severe heatwaves. According to data from climate change, this year, 2022 was more than 60,000 deaths while in the year 2023, around 47,000 death occurred. The emergence and strengthening of heatwaves over the areas of northwestern Europe, especially in the U.S., have exceeded many altitudes higher than the predictions produced by the climate models. Due to this thousands of people are killed every year. What’s driving these heatwaves?
Although scientists agree that this fast acceleration of the global temperature is one of the serious factors that causes this boom in the frequency of heatwaves, causes of such a dramatic nature are not so well-defined. Researchers pointed to the factors enhancing the intensity as well as to such atmospheric and environmental disturbances.
One of the reasons for the heatwave surges in Europe and Russia is the jet stream. The jet stream is a portion of the atmosphere that typically travels from west to east at a significant altitude. Because the Arctic warms faster than the entire world, this leads the jet stream to be deranged, weakened, and slowed down. Thus, the disturbance prolongs persistent hot air over certain areas and, therefore, makes heatwaves last longer than they could have if they were only purely natural.
There have been many reasons contributing to heighten heat waves in areas like the Pacific Northwest. For the past twenty years, the temperatures had rendered the vegetation dry removing natural coolification of the air done by plants. Moth hold within the leaves cools the air; loss in it translates into how powerful, or the unstoppable heat waves those are.
This, therefore, produces a vicious heat cycle with an amplifying effect towards making the place vulnerable for further heatwaves.
Health, agriculture, and infrastructure are being threatened.
Such extreme heat waves have various implications. The direct effects of extreme heat waves on human beings are wonderful as extreme heat waves cause dehydration and heatstroke along with worsening several other medical conditions. More susceptible people, which include the elderly, suffer more deaths, and thousands are being reported dead every year due to extreme heat waves. Temperature increases also affect agriculture and the natural system. Crops are quite sensitive to heat, and when their production is exposed to extreme heat conditions, yield production decreases. Wildfires, which often result from extreme heat conditions, have become increasingly frequent and devastating to agricultural lands and also to natural resources. Such crop failures in some parts have led to food inadequacy and high costs. In many parts, the infrastructure is not built to withstand such long-term spells of heat that are fast becoming quite recurrent. Designed for milder temperatures, the power grids, roads, and buildings have always been unable to cope with extreme heat that triggers power outages, causes damage to infrastructure, and hampers daily life.
The need for change The world needs to prepare for this new climatic change that is happening more frequently. Change needs to happen faster and faster. There is a need to spend on infrastructure that could be more tolerant of extreme heat, designing buildings in ways that allow the indoors to be kept cool, as well as risk management strategies for extreme weather events. The period requires that governments and public institutions plan for the vulnerable, such as cooling centers. Public education should also be enhanced, and health services must take care of the heat disorders that occur during such occurrences. Besides, the changes in farming techniques to produce high-heat crops must adapt and change by the farmer, but food production should stay normal production because it’s the case with global temperatures increase. At its core, one thing is not so popular, but a fact is true, that this planet needs an immediate action about climate change because it threatens the planet. Otherwise, these heatwaves will destroy lives, economies, and turn the global climate crises unfolding endlessly.
Source: Columbia University