The past month has seen severe and often unprecedented, extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere. Climate scientists say that man-made changes in the atmosphere have made such phenomena more likely, but the extent to which a particular event can be blamed for human activity remains debated. Nevertheless, many find it admirable that humanitarian action not only increased the risk of these events but also contributed to their occurrence together.
Nature Climate Change today published an impeccable timeline magazine that explains why records are not only being broken, but often shattered by wide margins. “Climate, climate, and water-related hazards are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change,” Secretary-General of the World Meteorology (WMO), Professor Petrie Talas, said in a statement released last week. “The humanitarian and economic catastrophe was highlighted with tragic effects last week due to torrential rains and devastating floods and loss of life in Central Europe and China.”
The world has always faced extreme weather events and these are often because of more deaths than today before satellites warn. A few years ago most meteorologists were reluctant to blame any one event for changes in global average temperatures, but that has changed. “Recent record-breaking heatwaves in North America are clearly linked to global warming,” Talas added. Twenty-seven climate researchers have finalized a warm wave that fell in western North America in June / July and would have been one and a half times less than the level of pre-industrial greenhouse gases.
Warmer winds could contain more water, and climate change reports have warned of greater flooding over the decades as a result of anthropogenic global warming, so recent disasters in Germany and Henan have not been unexpected. Dr. Richard Matter of CSIRO, Australia, specializes in the causes of weather events and told IFLScience that there could be reasons why they could all happen together.
“The path of the jet stream is crucial for controlling large-scale weather systems,” Mateer said. “A warmer climate can make jet flow more unstable. We’ve seen it probably associated with extreme winter events in the winter, but it can also create summer hotspots.
