Heat Wave around the World

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UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

LONDON (AP) — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe, as the U.K.’s national weather forecaster said such highs are now a fact of life in a country ill-prepared for such extremes.

https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-france-fires-london-england-b9bc07c1685b76ddf377b65f19fb811b?

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This summer broke the world record for the highest temperature officially recorded

GENEVA (AP) — Earth has sweltered through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, with a record warm August capping a season of brutal and deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

https://apnews.com/article/un-hottest-summer-climate-change-b7c7936070952da781af01288607b1f1?

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September sizzled to records and was so much warmer than average scientists call it ‘mind-blowing’

After a summer of record-smashing heat, warming somehow got even worse in September as Earth set a new mark for how far above normal temperatures were, the European climate agency reported Thursday.

https://apnews.com/article/record-hot-climate-change-el-nino-copernicus-1d80d23b98efd62d20b79f83619dfb82?

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November is the sixth straight month to set a heat record, scientists say

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For the sixth month in a row, Earth set a new monthly record for heat, and also added the hottest autumn to the litany of record-breaking heat this year, the European climate agency calculated.

https://apnews.com/article/november-climate-change-warming-record-copernicus-456149c041bb63149bd61e96cc13acca?

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?️ Earth's hottest year

Data: NOAA. Chart: Deena Zaidi/Axios Visuals NOAA yesterday projected greater than 99.5% odds that 2023 will be the world's hottest year since instrument records began in the 19th century, Axios' Andrew Freedman and Aïda Amer report. Why it matters: The record, a result of both human-caused climate change and an El Niño event in the tropical Pacific, shows how quickly and significantly the world is heating up. ? What's next: The record is likely to be short-lived. 2024 is forecast to eclipse it! Photo essay: Earth's hottest year.

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2024 may be hottest year on record

Data: NOAA. (Uses 1901-2000 mean. 2023 data through Nov.) Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios 2024 may be even hotter than the "gobsmackingly" hot 2023, which featured extreme — and often deadly — weather and climate events around the globe. Why it matters: A hotter '24 would lend credence to the hypothesis that global warming is accelerating, Axios climate expert Andrew Freedman writes. ?️ The big picture: The combination of human-caused global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy, along with deforestation — plus other factors like a naturally occurring El Niño — have boosted 2023's record warmth, stunning many in the scientific community. Disasters from deadly flooding in Libya and Greece to never-before-seen global average temperatures, along with record-shattering ocean heat, have occurred this year, for example. Studies have tied many of these events directly to climate change. This has led to a debate among some climate scientists regarding the rate of global warming, which began accelerating in the 1970s, and may be speeding up now. But there are skeptics. "During the typical first year of an El Niño, we see a global temperature spike in the last few months of the year followed by very warm conditions during the first months of the following year," said Robert Rohde, a scientist at Berkeley Earth, an independent group that tracks global temperatures. Keep reading.

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2023 confirmed as world's hottest year on record

The year 2023 has been confirmed as the warmest on record, driven by human-caused climate change and boosted by the natural El Niño weather event.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67861954

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It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees

MEXICO CITY (AP) — It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-heat-wave-howler-monkeys-dying-b99e0570dfb53a2fb7ebe663acecde78?

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New study finds Earth warming at record rate, but no evidence of climate change accelerating

The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated.

https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-accelerating-record-hot-deadly-434881547b4585a32fa906cf5495d3f0?

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12 months of record heat

Data: ERA5; Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios Visuals May was the 12th consecutive month to set a global average temperature record, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports. The new data comes amid a slew of findings from climate monitoring groups released today. Caveat: This is not the longest stretch on record of warmest months, which stands at 15. However, it is the longest streak to reach or exceed the Paris Agreement's aspirational target of limiting global warming to as low as 1.5°C compared to preindustrial levels. The big picture: The news comes as parts of Asia, Mexico, Central America and the southwestern U.S. have baked from withering heat waves. Actions to limit climate change, meanwhile, have been crowded out on the international agenda amid geopolitical strife, economic concerns and more. Keep reading ...

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Charted: It's not just summer

Data: Copernicus Climate Change Service. Chart: Axios Visuals Global average temperatures are outpacing the record-setting year of 2023, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes. The outlook shows that continuing next month. Longstanding temperature records fell in Canada and northern New England this month. Mexico tied its national all-time high-temperature record for any day of the year on Friday, with a high of 125.6°F. Data: NOAA. Map: Axios Visuals Between the lines: One of the top reasons for global record warmth is the extraordinarily hot ocean temperatures. Coral reefs are dying around the world, from the Florida Keys to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, given how susceptible many coral species are to hot water. Go deeper: What to do in extreme heat.

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More than 1,300 people died during Hajj, many of them after walking in the scorching heat

CAIRO (AP) — More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, Saudi authorities announced Sunday.

https://apnews.com/article/hajj-heat-deaths-mecca-saudi-arabia-pilgrimage-9f97aae1032b14ada29bbea7108195d3?

 

Heat kills 1,300 Muslim pilgrims

Muslim pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca last week at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Photo: AFP via Getty Images More than 1,300 people died this month during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, as temperatures climbed above 120°F. The death toll raises questions about both the Saudi government's processes and "an underbelly of tour operators and smugglers around the world who profit off Muslims desperate to make the journey," The New York Times reports. Roughly 2 million people make the pilgrimage to Mecca each year. Technically, a permit is required, and people who have one can access air-conditioned buses and tents. But with official packages costing several thousand dollars, a large number of people try to make the trip unofficially, per the Times. Most of the pilgrims who died this month are believed to have been traveling without a permit. This is not the first time the Hajj has turned deadly. The Saudi government does not release information about the number of deaths each year, making it nearly impossible to compare multiple years' death tolls. Go deeper: The global heat wave in photos

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?️ Earth's hottest day

Data: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ERA5. Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios Visuals Sunday was Earth's hottest day on record, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes from Copernicus Climate Change Service data. Why it matters: The record came in the middle of the planet's hottest year since the pre-industrial era — and likely at least 100,000 years before that. Keep reading ...

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?️ Heat threatens future Olympics

Data: CarbonPlan; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals By 2050, a majority of the world will be too hot to safely host the summer Olympics, according to an Axios analysis of data from CarbonPlan, a nonprofit climate research organization. Athletes have raised concerns about scorching temperatures in Paris, which could affect their health as well as their performance. Those problems will only get worse. ? If the Summer Olympics continues to be held in July and August, suitable locations will be narrowed to cities in Canada, northern Europe and Russia, or to the southern hemisphere, where it's winter in July and August. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, endurance events were rescheduled to the morning to avoid the hottest times of the day. But even so, 60% of heat-related illnesses occurred during these morning events. Explore the analysis.

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A 13-month streak of global temperature records just ended. Here are five takeaways

NEW YORK (AP) — After 13 months of what felt like an endless breaking of heat records, the streak came to an end last month — just barely. The European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday that July 2024’s average heat just missed surpassing July of last year. While the slightly cooler month is good news and could provide some minor relief for people exposed to extreme heat, scientists warned that the root cause of the rising temperatures, climate change, remains the same.

https://apnews.com/article/heat-waves-heat-records-global-climate-change-copernicus-eae701d14f663c1544a46cbe6fe141c9?

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?️ Hottest summer on record

Data: ERA5. Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios The global average temperatures from June through August were the hottest on record, Axios extreme weather expert Andrew Freedman writes from data by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Why it matters: The period brought a spate of extreme heat, wildfires and other extreme events. Copernicus, an EU science center, now projects that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the globe's hottest year on record. Keep reading.

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Earth's hottest year

Data: NASA. Chart: Axios Visuals This year is almost certain to be the planet's warmest on record — narrowly beating 2023 as the hottest since at least the 19th century, Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman writes from new NASA data. Why it matters: NASA's top climate scientist, Gavin Schmidt, estimates that the chance of a new annual record being set in 2024 is greater than 99%. ? Zoom in: Last month was the second-warmest September on record. Global average temperatures were exceeded only by the year before. NASA's monthly climate data, along with NOAA's, was delayed after Hurricane Helene. NASA uses some information from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, N.C., which was temporarily knocked offline by the extensive flooding in that city. Between the lines: Other climate data through August tells the same story. Europe's Copernicus Climate Service said in August that 2024 will most likely be the hottest year in its data set as well.  ? Zoom out: Annual rankings reflect the influences of natural climate fluctuations, such as El Niño, combined with long-term human-caused warming. Scientists examine 30-year timescales to study climate change closely.

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?️ New data: Earth's hottest year

Data: Copernicus. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios Last year was Earth's hottest since instrument record-keeping began — eclipsing 2023's record, and for the first time exceeding the Paris target of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes from a Copernicus Climate Change Service announcement last night. As with 2023, the year was very likely the hottest in at least 125,000 years. Keep reading. Climate 2024 was the hottest year on record, breaching a critical climate goal and capping 10 years of unprecedented heat. It breaks the previous record set in 2023, and pushes the world over a critical climate threshold, according to new data from Europe's climate monitoring agency Copernicus. Scientists are still trying to fully understand why global heat has been so extreme for the past two years but the main driver is clear: the human-caused climate crisis, boosted by El Niño — a natural climate pattern that tends to have a warming influence. La Niña finally emerged this week and could bring wetter and cooler than average conditions in parts of the US. But future decades are still likely to be hotter overall as humans continue to burn planet-heating coal, oil and gas.   Earth records hottest year ever in 2024, breaching a key threshold It was such a big jump that the planet temporarily passed a major symbolic climate threshold, several weather monitoring agencies announced Friday. Read more. Why this matters: Last year’s global average temperature surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s that was called for by the 2015 Paris climate pact. It eclipsed 2023’s temperature in the European database by an eighth of a degree Celsius (more than a fifth of a degree Fahrenheit). Until the last couple of super-hot years, global temperature records were exceeded only by hundredths of a degree, scientists said. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ He fought to save jungles in Honduras. Now his killing haunts environmental defenders   Climate change goosed hurricane wind strength by 18 mph since 2019, study says   Runners are used to toughing it out. A warming climate can make that deadly

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A heat wave covers much of Europe and higher temperatures are on the way

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A heat wave covered much of Europe on Monday, with a record-hot first day of play at Wimbledon and high winds fanning forest fires in Turkey.

https://apnews.com/article/heat-wave-europe-turkey-france-spain-portugal-italy-09dd232d0664360f03d29fff2cd7c8d4?

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Heat Grips Europe

Wildfires are scorching parts of southern Europe as a lingering heat wave bakes swaths of the continent, prompting health alerts and evacuations.   Nearly 200 French schools were fully or partially closed yesterday, and 17 Italian cities are under the country’s highest heat alert as of this writing. Portugal and Spain saw record June temperatures near 115 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend. The extreme heat, expected to persist into midweek, is driven by a heat dome stretching from southwestern Europe to Turkey. Scientists say climate change contributes to the frequency and intensity of these high-pressure systems, which trap hot air like a lid on a pot.   The hot, dry air and strong winds in western Turkey have sparked wildfires that displaced over 50,000 people and temporarily shut down an international airport. Smaller fires also ignited in France’s Corbières region, while Greece remains on high alert after battling blazes near Athens last week.    Central and northern Europe are also sweltering, with Britain recording its hottest opening day in Wimbledon history yesterday.