23 of Europe’s 30 worst heatwaves on record have occurred this century
Paris:
Europe experienced a record number of days of “extreme heat stress” in 2023, two major climate monitoring agencies said on Monday, underscoring the threat of increasingly deadly summers across the continent.
In a year of contrasting extremes, Europe experienced scorching heatwaves but also catastrophic floods, severe droughts, violent storms and its largest wildfires.
The disasters caused billions of dollars in damage and affected more than 2 million people, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new joint report.
As European summers get hotter due to global warming, the agencies list heat as the biggest climate-related threat, with particularly serious health consequences.
Copernicus climate scientist Rebecca Emerton said: “We are seeing an increase in days of heat stress across Europe and 2023 is no exception, with Europe experiencing a record number of days of extreme heat stress new highs.”
For the study, Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization used the Universal Thermal Climate Index, which measures the impact of the environment on the human body.
It takes into account not only high temperatures, but also humidity, wind speed, sunlight and heat radiated from the surrounding environment.
The index has 10 different categories of heat stress and cold stress in degrees Celsius, representing the “feeling” temperature.
Emerton said extreme heat stress “is the equivalent of feeling temperatures above 46 degrees Celsius, when action must be taken to avoid health risks such as heatstroke”.
“Extended summer”
Prolonged exposure to heat stress is especially dangerous for vulnerable groups such as the elderly or those with pre-existing health conditions.
The impact of high temperatures is more intense in cities, the report said.
The report said that 23 of the 30 worst heat waves on record in Europe have occurred this century, and the number of heat wave-related deaths has jumped by about 30% in the past 20 years.
2023 hasn’t been the hottest summer in Europe – in fact, it’s been the fifth – but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hot.
Emerton said much of Europe was sweltering due to heatwaves during the “extended summer” from June to September.
She added that September was the warmest month on record across Europe.
On July 23, 13% of Europe experienced unprecedented severe heat stress, with Southern Europe the most affected.
There is no data yet on the number of deaths from extreme heat in Europe in 2023.
But the report said tens of thousands of people were estimated to have died from heat waves during Europe’s similarly sultry summers in 2003, 2010 and 2022.
“When we see extreme heat waves like the one in 2023, we see excess mortality,” said Alvaro Silva, a climatologist at the World Meteorological Organization.
“The rise in mortality… is affecting most of Europe. It’s a big problem.”
serious consequences
Scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, making extreme weather events more intense and frequent.
Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average and heat waves will become longer and more intense in the future, the report said.
Combined with an aging population and more people moving to cities, this will have “serious consequences for public health”, the report added.
“Current heat wave interventions will soon be insufficient to address the expected heat-related health burden.”
2023 was the hottest year on record globally, with the ocean absorbing 90% of the excess heat generated by carbon dioxide emissions and temperatures reaching new highs.
Average sea surface temperatures in Europe reached their highest levels on record, with severe marine heatwaves in parts of the Atlantic described as “beyond extreme”, the report said.
Glaciers across Europe are seeing reduced ice volumes, while Greece has been hit by the largest wildfires in the EU’s history.
2023 was also one of the wettest years in Europe, with severe floods affecting 1.6 million people and storms affecting a further 550,000 people.
Emerton said the economic losses from these extreme events were 13.4 billion euros ($14.3 billion), about 80% of which was attributed to flooding.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
