The heat wave in the northwestern Pacific could soon be repeated as a result of climate change

By Mrs. Januta

(Reuters) – A suffocating heat wave that killed hundreds of people in the Pacific Northwest last week would be “almost impossible” without climate change, a study has found.

When they reported the first study that attributed the incident to climate change on Wednesday, scientists said climate change had caused such a heatwave in the region 150 times more. Scientists estimated that the extraordinary temperature was a thousand-year event, but noted that it was difficult to quantify it in the early summer given the unprecedented heat. But if current greenhouse gas emissions continue, they have warned that such an extreme event could happen every five to 10 years in the 2040s.

“People need to realize that heat waves are deadly and the most deadly extreme event,” said co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Oxford University and the world’s international scientific collective for World Weather Attribution. has published research. The research of 27 scientists is still awaiting review, but it uses revised imputation methods to quickly make findings after extreme events.

“Heat waves are changing much more and much faster than all other extreme events,” Otto said. “Preparing for the heat and preventing death from heat waves should be a number 1 priority for all city authorities.”

The heat wave took days in several parts of the United States and Canada in late June, breaking records in dozens of cities. The power lines melted in the heat. Curved roads. Canada broke the triple temperature record, and on June 29 it was 121 Fahrenheit (49.6 Celsius), which is 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.6 degrees Celsius), which is 8 degrees higher than the previous record.

Another heat wave is expected to hit parts of Canada and the United States this week.

The death toll in Oregon alone has been 100, and British Columbia has had hundreds more deaths than usual. It will take months to calculate the total number of deaths, but scientists say those numbers will rise. Hospitals also called for visits related to heat and emergency services.

The new study that attributed the heat wave to climate change is not entirely surprising. Climate change around the world has made heat waves more common, more severe, and longer lasting.

The June heat wave, however, was a far cry from the Northwest Pacific rule. To do this, the authors suggested two possible explanations: Either many factors came together to create a very rare event that worsened climate change or climate change has changed atmospheric conditions, so this type of heat wave is more common than previously understood. .

In any case, the study says that industry-driven climate change played a key role.

“Most types of extreme events are becoming more frequent,” said Philip Mote, a climate scientist at Oregon State University who did not participate in the study. Or, in the case of the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, he said, extreme events were sometimes becoming “almost unimaginable things”.

“FAST HUMAN FINGER”

The temperature point was caused by what scientists call a “heat dome” or a mass of high-pressure air parked in the region. Like the lid of a pot, the dome caught hot air underneath.

Although the weather was unusual in its heyday (temperature records are so rare in early summer), last month was the warmest June in North America and the fourth warmest in the world, according to EU climate scientist Copernicus. The Change Service reported on Wednesday.

In recent years, scientific advances have allowed researchers to link specific extreme weather events to climate change. (Extreme weather chart) https://tmsnrt.rs/3wcycMk

“In this extreme heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, there is a clear human fingerprint, and in every modern era we live in, every extreme heat wave we live in,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain of the University of California. Los Angeles, which did not participate in the new investigation.

To establish a climate link to last week’s heat wave, the study authors used computer simulations to compare what conditions might exist without global warming, and compared them to current conditions and what actually happened.

“This event was shocking for everyone who lived in the Pacific Northwest. Reasonably, there was nothing nearby in the modern historical record,” Swain said. “And yet it can be something that becomes a fairly common occurrence.”