Cascading heat waves are hitting all regions of the world at the start of summer, from Europe to China via the United States. This illustrates the extreme conditions amplified by global warming. In Europe, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are also facing a large heat wave. The mercury is expected to rise to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, “potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe”, according to the European Space Agency. In Greece, the authorities have decided to close the Acropolis of Athens, the ancient emblematic monument and the most visited in the country, at the hottest hours, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, more than 100 million people are under heat alerts, according to the government site heat.gov. Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California are expecting potentially hazardous conditions in the coming days, with all-time high temperatures possible, US weather services have warned.
In China, some regions, including the capital Beijing, are also suffering from a strong heat wave. One of the country’s main electricity companies said on Monday it recorded a record daily electricity generation, due to increased demand linked to high temperatures. In many cities such as Shanghai, foggers are installed in the streets to cool the population. According to the AP news agency, bomb shelters have also been reopened in several cities such as Hangzhou and Wuhan, to serve as emergency cooling centers during heat waves.
North Africa is also affected. In Morocco, which has been experiencing a series of heat waves since the beginning of the summer, a red heat alert has been issued for several provinces. In Tunisia, the fate of hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants who were taken to desert areas bordering Libya worries, while the heat wave and the lack of water put their lives in danger, as reported by Le Monde.
Globally, June was the hottest month ever measured, according to the European Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA agencies. Then, the first full week of July was in turn the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Heat waves represent one of the deadliest weather events, the organization said. Last summer, in Europe alone, high temperatures caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study, including 5,000 in France. This extreme weather, which is occurring more frequently due to climate change, “unfortunately is becoming the new norm”, WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said in a statement on Thursday. The cyclical El Nino weather phenomenon, which usually causes global temperatures to rise, is also contributing to the worsening situation.
The United States under the impact of extreme climatic events
In the United States, the summer has already been marked by a series of climatic disasters. Smoke from the fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are still out of control, led to several episodes of heavy air pollution across the northeastern United States in June. Catastrophic floods have affected the state of Vermont (northeast) this week. Scientists point out that global warming can also contribute to more frequent and heavier rains, by increasing water vapor in the atmosphere.
Finally, for weeks, the south of the country has been facing a heat wave that has left residents no respite. Mercury in California’s Death Valley desert this weekend could equal or even exceed the highest air temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, according to climatologist Daniel Swain of the University of California to Los Angeles. Officially, the absolute world record has been set at 56.7°C by the WMO. But it was recorded in Death Valley in 1913 and many meteorologists do not consider it reliable, explained the scientist, who prefers to stick to the 54.4 ° C recorded at the same place in 2020 and 2021.