![]() In May, scientists reported in Nature Climate Change that 37 percent of heat-related deaths between 19 were attributable to human-caused climate change. West, for example, can create a reinforcing cycle that exacerbates both ( SN: 4/16/20).Īnd that poses many dangers for the planet, not least for human health ( SN: 4/3/18). “We’re seeing these highs form more frequently, and more persistently.” Extreme heat and extreme drought in the U.S. Overall, it’s known that climate change is likely to make such extreme events more common in the future, O’Neill says. “Turns out, were right.”įuture climate change attribution studies may shed some more light on the ways in which this particular heat wave may be linked to climate change ( SN: 7/15/20). Climate change is likely to make such extreme events more common in the future.Ī week before the onset of the heat wave, forecasters were predicting such unprecedented temperatures for the region that many people dismissed those predictions as “being ridiculous,” O’Neill says. “This is a climate that we’re not accustomed to.” 3. ![]() Saying that the heat wave is a once-in-a-millennium event means that “you would expect that, at random chance, this would occur once every 1,000 years. “We have a historical data record that’s 100 years long,” O’Neill says. That changing reference makes it tough to place such an unprecedented heat wave in any kind of historical context. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the country’s new baseline reference temperature, or “climate normal,” will be the period from 1991 to 2020 - also now the hottest 30-year period on record for the country ( SN: 5/26/21). Those changes are reflected in what’s now officially considered “normal.” In May, for example, the U.S. Globally, Earth’s average temperatures are increasing, with 20 tied for the hottest years on record ( SN: 1/14/21). Ground-level ozone levels, for instance, also reached the highest seen yet in 2021, the chemical reactions that form the gas amped up by a potent mix of high heat and strong ultraviolet light.īaseline temperatures were already higher than in the past, due to Earth’s changing climate. Such high temperatures are particularly dangerous in a normally cool region little used to or prepared for it, raising the risk of heat-related deaths and other health hazards ( SN: 4/3/18). The heat was so extreme it melted transit power cables for Portland’s cable cars and caused asphalt and concrete roads in western Washington to expand and crack. Similar records were notched across the region and more are expected to be set as the high pressure system slowly slides east. Temperatures in Portland, Ore., reached 115° Fahrenheit (46° Celsius) on June 29, the highest temperature recorded there since record-keeping began in 1940 average high temperatures for this time of year are about 73° F (23° C). But one consequence of Earth’s rapidly changing climate is that such extreme events will become much more common in the region in future, says Larry O’Neill, a climate scientist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Canada, sending temperatures in the region soaring to unprecedented heights.įrom a historic perspective, the event is so rare and extreme as to be a once in a millennium heat wave. Like a lid on a steaming pot, a high-pressure system is sitting over the U.S.
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