Severe Heat waves Around the World
This summer, multiple heatwaves broke the long-standing temperature records and fueled wildfires. Indicated by the map produced by the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) global model, many places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have been suffering from extreme heatwaves as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). “While there is a clear pattern of an ‘atmospheric wave’ with alternating warm (redder) and cool (bluer) values in different locations, this large area of extreme (and record breaking) heat is another clear indicator that emissions of greenhouse gases by human activity are causing weather extremes that impact our living conditions,” said Steven Pawson, chief of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Early in March this year, according to the Guardian, “temperatures, which should have been cooling rapidly as the south pole’s brief summer faded, were soaring – at the Vostok station, about 800 miles from the geographic south pole, thermometers recorded a massive 15 degrees Celsius hotter than the previous all-time record, while at Terra Nova coastal base the water hovered above freezing, unheard of for the time of year.”
Similarly, at the North Pole, “unusual temperatures were also being recorded, astonishing for the time of year when the Arctic should be slowly emerging from its winter deep freeze. The region was more than 3 degrees Celsius warmer than its long-term average, researchers said.”
However, the abnormal temperatures at both poles were just the preface of the coming heatwaves that are now sweeping across the world. On 15 May, the India Meteorological Department said that numerous observing stations reported temperatures of between 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). This followed a heatwave at the end of April and early May, at which temperatures reached 43-46 degrees Celsius. In Pakistan, temperatures also hit 50 degrees Celsius in Jacobabad and Nawabshahin, with daytime temperatures between 5 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius above normal in large swathes of the country. According to the World Meteorological Organization, “India recorded its warmest March on record, with an average maximum temperature of 33.1 degrees Celsius, or 1.86 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.” Its warmest April, which the average maximum temperature in the northwest and central region of the country reached 35.9 degrees Celsius and 37.8 degrees Celsius respectively, broke the record keeping started there 122 years ago. “Pakistan also recorded its warmest March for at least the past 60 years, with a number of stations breaking March records. In the pre-monsoon period, both India and Pakistan regularly experience excessively high temperatures, especially in May. Heatwaves do occur in April but are less common. It is too soon to know whether new national temperature records will be set. ”
The scorching temperature can be deadly for millions of farmers, construction workers, day laborers and street hawkers who work outdoors and live from hand to mouth, as the body gets no time to recover from extreme daytime heat exposure after high-intensity workloads.
The heatwave not only affected people’s livelihood and the wheat crop growth, but also triggered subsequent outages in India. The soaring demand for electricity, not just to cool homes, but also to keep agricultural pumps going so they can draw underground water and irrigate parched crops in the states of Haryana and Punjab, the country’s breadbasket, induced coal shortage for thermal power plants and outages several hours a day in many parts of the country. Nearly 70% of electricity in India is generated by coal-fired power plants. According to the Third Pole, the pollster LocalCircles surveyed 21,500 households across 322 rural and urban districts, finding that two out of three respondents have faced power outages during the heatwave, and one in three experienced power outages that were over two hours long. Data from the national load dispatch centre (POSOCO) records power shortages in various states. In addition to energy crunch, the massive energy consumption itself will accelerate greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in even higher temperature.
The unseasonable temperature is uncanny because “it arrived very early, covered a massive area in the two countries and stayed on for long duration”, Vimal Mishra, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, told CBS News.
Experts said the severe weather may carry footprints of global warming, warning that the heatwave in India and Pakistan “is just a snapshot of what we will see in the next 20 to 30 years”. Heatwaves increased in frequency, density and duration will become new normal, exerting negative influences on water availability, agriculture, businesses and energy demand.
“According to an Indian government report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the average frequency of summer heat waves will increase to about 2.5 events per season by the mid-21st century with a further rise to about 3 events by the end of the century. The average duration of heat waves is also expected to increase to 18 days per season toward the end of the century.”
Scorching weather also took place in other parts of the world. In Western Europe, the heatwave fueled fires that raged across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France. Spain saw the mercury hit 40 degrees Celsius in early June, which is more common in July or August. In Portugal, temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 13 in the town of Leiria, where more than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) had burned. More than half of the country was on red alert as firefighters battled 14 active fires, according to the Guardian. On July 5, the Met Office Weather Agency in UK issued the first red extreme heat warming, forecasting that the maximum temperature might exceed 40 degrees Celsius in parts of central, northern, eastern and southeastern England. On July 19, the Met Office registered a provisional reading of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at Coningsby in eastern England, breaking the record of 38.7 degrees Celsius set in 2019. According to NASA, “in North Africa, Tunisia has endured a heatwave and fires that have damaged the country’s grain crop. On July 13 in the capital city of Tunis, the temperature reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking a 40-year record. In Iran, temperatures remained high in July after reaching a scorching 52 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit) in late June.” In China, “the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory, where records have been kept since 1873, recorded its highest temperature ever: 40.9 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 13, 2022.” High humidity and dewpoints, along with warm overnight temperatures, created potentially deadly conditions, where the number of people who suffered from heatstroke symptoms rose dramatically.
As what Fiona Harvey suggested in an article published by the Guardian, “painting roofs white in hot countries to reflect the sun’s rays, growing ivy on walls in more temperate regions, planting trees for shade, fountains and more green areas in cities” can all help people adapt their “burning” cities. Changing materials of buildings, transport networks and other vital infrastructure may secure daily routines. However, unless the net carbon emission is halted, the deadly feedback loop is still rolling. Therefore, seeking for new energy alternatives is of imperative need as “global warming” is no longer a word coined in textbook, but something we can truly feel.
