The Heat Is Everywhere
Extreme weather events are hitting three continents all at once. Here's what connects them.
Only two weeks ago, I wrote my Friday column on the heatwave that was – and is – ravaging Europe. These intense and prolonged heatwaves are - in part - the result of this year’s ‘super El Niño’. (El Niño is recurring period of warming caused by oscillations in trade winds and ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean). After the last year or so of La Niña conditions, El Niño was expected to return this year – but it’s already much more intense than usual, hence the moniker ‘super’.
This ‘super El Niño’ is not a random fluctuation. It is the result of the dramatic increase in ocean temperatures that has been one of the strongest indicators of climate breakdown. The oceans absorb 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases. Average ocean temperatures have already risen by nearly one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and the rate of change in temperatures is increasing. Higher baseline ocean temperatures mean stronger El Niños.
Stronger El Niños mean more extreme weather for much of the world. A normal El Niño event would bring drought to parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Australia, and flooding to parts of South America. These issues all intensify when El Niño strengthens. Previous ‘super’ El Niño events have been associated with crop failures, wildfires, and flooding across dozens of countries.
I’ve already written about Europe’s heatwave. This week, I want to talk about all the other effects the super El Niño is bringing – from a monster ‘heat dome’ in the US, to typhoons in China, to record-breaking ocean temperatures, to wildfires.
It’s easy for those of us in Europe and the US to treat events like heatwaves as isolated occurrences – and to forget about them as soon as everything returns to ‘normal’. But they’re not. They’re part of a pattern of increasing extreme weather seen all over the world thanks to climate breakdown. And we need to connect the dots.
First, we’re focusing on the US, where a blazing heatwave has already resulted in multiple deaths. The extreme heat started last week, and by the time cool air had drifted in to alleviate the scorching conditions, at least 25 people had died. 22 people are dead in New Jersey alone, mostly found in homes without air conditioning, in parked cars, on the street. More than 140 million people are under heat alerts. Over 20 states hit 100F (38C).
Human beings can die from exposure to heat alone – particularly in humid conditions, when the evaporation-based cooling our bodies usually rely on breaks down. But extreme heat can also drive deaths by exacerbating underlying conditions. Officials in Illinois recorded a death from cardiovascular disease with heat as a ‘contributing factor’. In Mississippi, a 74-year-old man was found dead behind a gas station after wandering off, disoriented in the heat. An 83-year-old woman collapsed gardening and died waiting for help that came too late.
Now, the country is bracing for the arrival of an ‘unusually large’ heat dome, which looks set to bring record temperatures once again. The heat dome will affect two thirds of the continental United States. Within an area stretching through much of the southern and eastern US, temperatures will run 15 to 25F (8 to 14C) above normal – day and night. Ninety local records are expected to fall by Wednesday.
