Fire and Rain

 

The climate change crises are now becoming an almost daily occurrence.

The recent rains that flooded much of Western Europe and killed over 200 people have been found to have been exacerbated by global warming which made rainfall events like these up to nine times more likely in Western Europe.

With continued greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures, the heavy rainfall that brought misery to parts of Europe will become more common.

Professor Hayley Fowler from Newcastle University explained, "We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, as well as improving emergency warning and management systems and making our infrastructure 'climate resilient' - to reduce casualties and costs and make them more able to withstand these extreme flooding events."

Last year was the warmest on record across Europe, say scientists. Temperatures across the region were more than 1.9C above the long-term average between 1981 and 2010. New data shows that Europe's temperature margin over previous years was significantly greater than previously thought.  There were huge temperature differences from the long-term average in some countries with Estonia, Finland and Latvia all recording anomalies of 2.4C.

"This level of difference to the previous long-term average, which is a large difference, is something that is concerning," said Dr Robert Dunn, a senior climate scientist at the UK Met Office. "It is something to sit up and take notice of, but it's not just the temperatures that are increasing, the extreme events, the heat waves we're seeing this year, and last year as well. We're seeing these responses across the world."

"The amount by which the previous record has been exceeded should worry us all," said Prof Gabi Hegerl, professor of climate system science at the University of Edinburgh,

The State of the Climate 2020 report from the American Meteorological Society says temperatures in the Arctic are also rising rapidly.

Temperatures over land reached worrying new heights, getting to 2.1C above the 1981-2010 average. This was the highest since the series of records began 121 years ago.

It was also the seventh year in succession with an annual average temperature more than 1C above the average.

The hot, dry and windy weather conditions fueling the huge wildfires that have besieged the western US this summer have increased in frequency over the past 50 years, a new study has found. The study’s findings, based on data from weather stations across the region, are consistent with other recent research suggesting that in many parts of the west, increased temperatures from climate breakdown are leading to more parched summers.

“It’s clear that conditions we’re seeing right now in the west are very different from what we saw a few decades ago,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles. “The increase in hot and dry conditions appears to be fueling an increase in extreme fire.”

Climate change: Europe's extreme rains made more likely by humans - BBC News

Climate change: Europe's 2020 heat reached 'troubling' level - BBC News

‘Fire weather’: dangerous days now far more common in US west, study finds | Climate crisis in the American west | The Guardian