Europe braces for a "fiery" summer

The risk of a heatwave at the 2024 Paris Olympics has organizers “sweating profusely” about the safety of athletes.

A tourist cools off on the street in Rome, Italy. Photo: Euronews

Europe is entering a scorching summer as Germany and the Nordic countries brace for unusually high temperatures. Meanwhile, the threat of a heatwave at the Paris 2024 Olympics has organizers sweating over the safety of athletes. Spain is bracing for another sweltering summer, releasing a new map to help predict heatwaves more accurately. Cities across the continent are doing everything they can to cope with extreme heat.

The world has endured 11 straight months of record-breaking heat, and sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have risen to their highest levels in at least 40 years. When it comes to heat waves or extreme weather, no one can predict what lies ahead. But past weather can give forecasters some clues.

“It’s very difficult to predict exactly what the weather will be like, as the weather across Europe is changing with so many different factors,” said Tamsin Green, a meteorologist at Weather & Radar. “It’s likely that the hotspots will be concentrated in southern and eastern Europe.”

Western Europe could see average rainfall in June, followed by above-average rainfall in southern Europe in July. Much of the continent is likely to be drier and more stable in August, she added. Many factors are influencing Europe’s weather. For example, the world is currently in a transition period between El Niño and La Niña weather phenomena, which are “very important” in determining global weather and temperature patterns.

Although El Niño is defined as above-average sea surface temperatures and increased rainfall in the eastern and central tropical Pacific, it has global impacts. “Like a domino effect,” explains T. Green, weather in one place can influence conditions on the other side of the planet. If rainfall increases in one part of the world, it decreases elsewhere. Europe, for example, often experiences the remnants of tropical monsoon storms.

Hurricane activity in the Atlantic, during the June-to-November hurricane season, is likely to increase as La Niña forms in the Pacific, putting pressure on storms there. But one factor that is playing a big role in the continent’s increasingly hot summers is climate change. “The past 10 years have been the hottest on record, with the majority of global warming occurring in the last 40 years,” says T. Green. “We’ve already seen April 2024 become the 11th consecutive month with a record-breaking heatwave.”

Europe has warmed at twice the global average since 1991, according to recent data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU Copernicus Climate Service (C3S). The continent is “no exception” when it comes to the consequences of climate change, with both agencies warning that Europe needs to do more to cut emissions and transition away from fossil fuels. Twenty-three of the continent’s 30 most severe heatwaves have occurred since 2000 – five in the past three years. The latest five-year average shows that temperatures in Europe are now 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, compared to 1.3 ^degrees Celsius globally. “As a result, 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record given the global warming trend,” Green said.

LAM DIEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chau-au-gong-minh-truoc-mua-he-ruc-lua-post742032.html