Relentless, deadly heat is tightening its grip on Europe, with temperature records expected to not just fall but be obliterated this week. Scientists warn this extreme heat is a huge problem for Europe and a wake up call to a new reality.
Europe is the planet’s fastest-warming continent, heating at around two to three times the global average, yet it’s woefully underprepared. Its infrastructure was not built for extreme heat; when temperatures spike, rail tracks buckle, power cables break, homes turn into heat traps, and thousands die.
This week is yet another brutal reminder that European heat is becoming both more severe and more frequent. It marks the second record-breaking heat wave in two straight months, with the potential for national all-time temperature records to be broken before Europe even reaches July, typically its hottest month.
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In the United Kingdom, temperatures are set to soar into the triple digits this week, with the UK Met Office issuing an very rare red warning for extreme heat, indicating a risk to life.
Hundreds of schools are closing or moving to half days, people have been told to avoid train journeys, and the Met Office has warned of severe impacts on energy and water. London is “cooking,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres, addressing an audience at London Climate week Tuesday.
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The heat dome is not unusual for Europe in summer, “but the temperatures are,” said Richard Allan, a climate science professor at the University of Reading. These are being supercharged by climate change, driven by humans burning oil, coal and gas, which raises the background temperature, making every heat wave more intense.
And we can’t possibly stop burning all that oil, coal and gas, so we’re doomed. Oh well.
Scientists say that even without El Niño, climate change is the driving force of extreme heat. “There’s a sad inevitability to all of this, with scientists like me trotting out the same quotes year after year,” said Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London. “Yes it’s climate change, yes it’s us, no it’s not El Niño.”
It’s because we can’t possibly stop, you see.
They did tell us.
Is Europe heating up more rapidly than predicted?
In short, no — what’s happening now is what scientists have long warned. The increasing severity and extent of European heatwaves “is broadly consistent with what is expected from computer simulations and physical theory,” the University of Reading’s Allan said.
They told us, but we are helpless.
The temperatures Europe is enduring right now might not sound that extreme to some, but heat hits differently in countries where air conditioning is very rare — only found in around 20% of European homes.
Air conditioning itself contributes to warming, of course.
Europe’s May and June heat waves could just be the start of an extreme summer in Europe. “There is huge agreement that the next three months will be abnormally warm,” Thorne said.
Europe — in common with much of the rest of the world — has not reckoned with the fact the climate has shifted, he warned.
“Nowhere is truly prepared for what climate change will bring. We have developed everything — and I mean everything — to a stable climate we are rapidly waving goodbye to,” Thorne said. “We are definitively entering the find out phase here having done two centuries of mucking about by burning fossil fuels — and its not going to be pretty.”
If you get depressed about it, try going for a nice ride in the car.
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