Heatwaves Are The New Normal

A heatwave is a concatenation of three extraordinarily hot days in a row. Of course, that depends on where you are measuring the temperature. In Madrid, where I live, the limit is 36.5ºC, so if we get half a week of maximum temperatures over that we have a heatwave. It's quite hot, even for seasoned Spaniards.

We had three this summer. And one of them was nicknamed Lucifer.

We knew this would happen. Three months ago, scientists from the University of Hawaii found that a third of the world's population was already at risk of life-threatening heatwaves. If there are no significant reductions in greenhouse emissions, almost half of the people of this planet will see their lives on the line due to heat (and humidity) by the end of this century.

This article presents another iteration in the growing discipline of climate change attribution: A relatively new branch of climate science that looks at the causality of weather events. Where do they come from? And what can we expect in the future?

Now we know a bit more, as explained in this article. Heatwaves like Lucifer are 10 times more likely, thanks to (as usual), man-made climate change. By 2050 they'll be just as normal as summer. And here in Europe we're pretty well off.

By comparing extremes with historical measurements and computer models of a climate unaltered by carbon emissions, researchers can show how global warming is already heavily loading the dice of dangerous weather.

What I liked about this text, though, was that it didn't stop at the research, and linked a number of other events that took place this year, and that can also be attributed to man-made climate change. From wildfires in Portugal to coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef, this is all coming from the same place. And let's not forget hurricanes: We have just lived the most hurricane-active month ever recorded.

This is all important, because it's one of my usual roadblocks is convincing people that climate change is not coming.

It's already here.