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Scientists Blame Climate Change for European Heat Records
🇩🇰 Denmark /Environment & Climate

Scientists Blame Climate Change for European Heat Records

From Berlingske · () Danish

Translated from Danish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News From a news agency New plan
  • A new analysis by climate scientists attributes recent European heatwaves largely to human-caused climate change.
  • The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group found these heatwaves are now 100 times more likely than two decades ago.
  • The study highlights that human-induced global warming has increased average global temperatures, with Europe warming at the fastest rate.

The recent intense heatwave gripping Western Europe would have been virtually impossible without human-induced climate change, according to a new analysis by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative.

In the area studied, this heatwave is the most severe ever recorded.

— World Weather Attribution (WWA)Describing the intensity of the current European heatwave.

Klimaforskere from WWA, a consortium dedicated to assessing the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, concluded that the current heatwave has made record-high nighttime temperatures 100 times more probable than they were just twenty years ago. The analysis, cited by Reuters and AFP, states that the heatwave experienced in the studied region is the most severe ever recorded.

To illustrate the change, researchers noted that a similar heatwave in June 1976 would have been 3.5 degrees Celsius cooler than the current event. "Climate change bears unequivocal blame," AFP reported the scientists stating. Decades of research have firmly established that human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, have raised the planet's average temperature by approximately 1.4 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, as confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization.

Climate change bears unequivocal blame.

— World Weather Attribution (WWA)Attributing the cause of the extreme heatwave.

Europe is experiencing warming at the fastest rate globally. The heatwave has already led to over 200 heat-related deaths in Spain, and London's ambulance services have reported a record number of emergency calls. Denmark is also affected, with the Danish Meteorological Institute issuing a heatwave warning. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 35 degrees Celsius, potentially breaking the Danish June record of 35.5 degrees set in 1947. Meteorologists attribute the extreme heat to a mass of hot air originating from the Sahara Desert that has spread across much of Europe.

Large parts of Europe have already suffered from the heat that has moved up from the Sahara across large parts of Europe and caused very high temperatures. This is what will also blow strongly over Denmark during the weekend.

— DMI Duty OfficerExplaining the origin and movement of the heatwave affecting Denmark.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Berlingske in Danish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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