Record Spring Heat in Mediterranean Almost Impossible Without Climate Change
April temperatures in southwestern Europe and North Africa exacerbated by global warming, scientists say.
An office worker rests in the shade in front of a cafe terrace area during high temperatures in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Photographer: Paul Hanna/BloombergMan-made climate change made the mass of hot air that brought scorching heat to Morocco, Algeria, Portugal and Spain at the end of April at least 100 times more likely to happen and would have been almost impossible in a cooler world, according to scientists.
Temperatures in many of the regions impacted were 20 degrees Celsius higher than the average for this time of the year, with records broken by large margins, according to rapid attribution analysis by scientists who are part of World Weather Attribution, a network of researchers that quantify the role of climate change on extreme weather events. WWA uses observation data, models and peer reviewed methods to analyze the events and has in the past submitted rapid attribution studies to peer review after publication.