Punishing heat waves gripped three continents on Tuesday, breaking records in cities around the Northern Hemisphere two weeks after Earth recorded what scientists said were its hottest days in modern history.
Firefighters in Greece scrambled to put out wildfires as dry conditions increased the risk of more fires across Europe. Beijing entered another day of 95-degree heat and people in another Chinese city, Hangzhou, likened the suffocating conditions to a sauna. From the Middle East to the American Southwest, delivery drivers, airport workers and construction crews toiled under blustery skies. Those who could stay indoors did.
Temperatures, affecting much of the world at once, make climate change a global crisis driven by man-made forces: emissions of heat-trapping gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels.
John Kerry, the US special representative on climate change, met with China’s prime minister in Beijing to try to coordinate some of the global response as a heat wave grips large swaths of China.
“The world is really looking to us for that leadership, especially on the climate issue,” Mr Kerry told Chinese officials. “Climate, as you know, is a global problem, not a bilateral problem. It is a threat to all mankind.”
Scientists say the planet has warmed about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century and will continue to grow hotter until humans essentially stop burning coal, oil and gas. Warmer temperatures contribute to extreme weather events and help make periods of extreme heat more frequent, longer and more severe.
Also affecting conditions this year is the return of El Niño, which, depending on sea surface temperatures and air pressure above it, can originate in the Pacific and have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world.
For millions on Tuesday, it was difficult to escape the heat. In the United States, Phoenix broke a nearly half-century-old record on Tuesday, marking the 19th consecutive day the city’s temperature topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). Elsewhere in the country, hot and humid conditions are expected to worsen along the Gulf Coast and in the Southeast.
Wildfires raged for another week in Canada, burning 25 million acres so far this year, an area roughly the size of Kentucky. More than a month into the fire season, 2023 has already surpassed Canada’s annual record since 1989.
The fire forced the evacuation of villages south, west and north of Athens, burning an estimated 7,400 acres of forest in Greece despite aerial water bombs to bring the fire under control.
“We have had fires, we have had them and we will have them in the future, and this is one of the consequences of the climate crisis, which we are living with more intensely,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement. .
Mr Mitsotakis cut short a trip to meet European leaders in Brussels to monitor the firefight. Greek officials, who opened air-conditioned spaces to provide some relief in Athens, are expected to restrict access to the Acropolis during the chilly mornings and afternoons, as they did last weekend after tourists plummeted.
In many European cities, authorities have introduced cooling centres. And given the danger — more than 61,000 people died in last summer’s heat waves in Europe, according to a recent study — they’ve urged visitors and residents to stay indoors during the hottest part of the day.
In Rome, where temperatures topped 100 Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Tuesday, officials mobilized task forces to hand out water and help people suffering from heat stress at sites such as the Colosseum and outdoor markets.
Japanese authorities, likewise, have rushed to help people suffering from the heat: At a festival in Kyoto on Monday, nine people aged 8 to more than 80 were taken to the hospital as temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, where temperatures hit more than 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the regional board of education forced 415 elementary and middle schools to cancel gym classes and outdoor activities.
And in China, a series of heat waves has swept the country since late June, with Beijing and other cities recording 90-degree heat day after day.
According to the official China Energy News, power stations have broken electricity generation records – burning more coal to meet cooling demand. China uses considerable solar, wind and hydropower, but still relies on coal for three-fifths of its electricity. Some Internet users in two provinces, Guangdong and Sichuan, reported scattered blackouts this week; The state media, which tends to be slow to acknowledge power problems, is silent on the blackouts.
For millions of people in South and Southeast Asia, the sweltering heat has already begun before summer. India recorded the hottest February in its history, then endured high temperatures in April, when 11 people died of heatstroke in a single day, and again in May and June. Monsoon rains have only cooled temperatures across the country in recent weeks.
Areas where extreme heat is common — and those who can barely afford to venture outside in the summer — are feeling the pinch.
At the Persian Gulf International Airport on Iran’s southwest coast, the heat index — a measure of how hot it really is outside based on both temperature and humidity — hit an extraordinary high of 152 degrees Fahrenheit (66.7 Celsius) at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. to weather data. The combination of 104-degree heat and soaked air, with 65 percent humidity, pushed conditions at the airport beyond what scientists say humans can normally withstand.
In California’s Death Valley National Park, the thermometer read just 128 degrees (53 Celsius) on Sunday.
It’s located in Death Valley, a 3,000-square-mile stretch of the Mojave Desert along the California-Nevada border, where the hottest temperatures on Earth have been recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization. In 1913, the temperature at Furnace Creek, California, reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit or 56.6 Celsius.
In recent years, thermometers there have hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit in 2020 and 2021, and forecasters warn it could approach the mark again this summer. But this week at least, the National Weather Service forecasts that temperatures in the national park should ease, relatively speaking, to 122 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
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