Climate Change Made Deadly UK Heat Wave at Least 10 Times Likelier
Scientists find the event that gave the country a new record high — 40.3°C — would have been “extremely unlikely” to happen without global warming.
A firefighter carries a bucket of water to dampen the ground following a fire on Dartford Heath near Dartford, UK, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThe UK’s heat wave earlier this month fueled so many blazes in London that the city’s fire service was busier than any day since Nazi attacks in World War II. More than 840 people may have died in England and Wales, according to a preliminary analysis. Now, a rapid scientific analysis of the event concludes that without climate change those conditions would have been “extremely unlikely.”
World Weather Attribution, the research team that conducted the study, looked at the weather in the southern half of the country on July 18-19, analyzing both peak temperatures and two-day averages. The analysis, released Thursday, found greenhouse gas pollution made the heat wave at least 10 times likelier and 4° Celsius (7.2° Fahrenheit) hotter than it would have been.