Climate change made deadly heat 35x more likely in US, Mexico and C. America
Deadly heat that blanketed the US, Mexico and Central America recently was made 35 times more likely due to global warming, an international network of climate scientists said yesterday.
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group of scientists also said that extreme highs witnessed over that region in May and June were four times as likely to occur today as a quarter of a century ago.
The record-breaking heat killed at least 125 people in Mexico and caused thousands more to suffer heat strokes, a potentially fatal condition that occurs when the body’s internal cooling mechanisms start to fail.
“We likely do not know the full picture of heat-related deaths, since they are usually only confirmed and reported months after the event, if at all,” said WWA, which uses peer-reviewed methods to assess links between specific extreme events and global warming.
They said that as the world continues to burn fossil fuels and emit climate-heating greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, millions more people are expected to be exposed to dangerous levels of heat in the future.
This year has been the hottest on record and already large swathes of the world have endured blistering temperatures before the onset of the northern hemisphere summer.
Greece has notched its earliest-ever heatwave, India has suffered a month-long stretch of searing highs, while the US is dealing with wildfires and scorching conditions.
And in Saudi Arabia, at least 900 people died during the annual hajj pilgrimage, mostly from unforgiving heat with temperatures in Mecca hitting 51.8°C on Monday. (AFP)