Why are countries around the world experiencing excessive heat? | BBC News

welcome to the program we're going to start with the extreme weather that's being experienced across four continents a sign that climate change May again help push temperatures beyond the record-breaking Heat last summer in Saudi Arabia there are reports that more than a thousand people have died pilgrims at the annual Harge Festival killed by the stifling heat we'll have more on that in just a moment in India there have been several deaths in the capital Delhi temperatures were reaching more than 50° C in Europe temperatur have also risen with Greece experiencing its earliest ever summer heat wave and in the United States there are wildfires on one Coast made worse with high temperatures and a tropical storm brewing on the other well scientists from the world weather attribution have released a report today saying human induced climate change made recent extreme heat in the US Southwest Mexico and Central America around 35 times more likely in their new report scientists said such a heat wave was now four times more likely than it was in the year 2000 driven by Planet warming emissions let's speak to ruping head of urban attribution at the Red Cross red cresant climate Center her team helped develop the report thank you for coming on the program absolutely so just talk us through the headlines here yeah so um the Heatwave that we saw in Central and uh Central America and North America um is just evidence of the climate change that we're seeing around the world um in our attribution study we found that climate change made the the maximum temp temperatures 35 times more likely and the nighttime temperatures up to 200 times more likely and that's really significant because it's really the nighttime temperatures when your body is supposed to rest and recover that has impacts on human health and that's what's actually causing a lot of these heat related deaths and just remind us of the mechanism here what is happening in what is heating what to lead to these temperatures yeah so we know that um climate change is caused by increasing greenhouse gases and essentially those greenhouse gases act to warm the planet around the world but they're also act acting to sort of supercharge weather system so we're starting to see these heat domes and ESS ually Heats stick around for an extended period of time um in different parts of the world we saw that in uh Mexico and Central America and we're also starting to see that now um in the Northern and Eastern parts of the United States so you said heat Dome there just expand on that a little for us what is it yeah absolutely so essentially it's an area of high pressure it's a place where you have um not a lot of clouds not a lot of rainfall but essentially um you just have high temperatures that stick around for for days and days and essentially that the the duration of that heat causes a lot of impacts both on infrastructure but also on people and people just aren't able to cope when it's hot during the day and at night continuously for for days on end so people are going to have to try and adapt now is it possible before we get on to adaptations is it possible to predict where and when this is going to happen so we have Heatwave early warning systems and we have um typically lots of warning before a heatwave occurs and so um in most parts of the world we are able to predict what the maximum temperatures are going to be days in advance and therefore um it actually is a big opportunity for us to be able to use that information to reduce the impacts to warn people in advance of the heat waves okay so if the warnings could be in place what then what can people at do what should government actually do so there's individual actions so essentially cooling yourself making sure that you're drinking water um cooling your home so passive cooling Technologies um shading your homes um making sure you're planting trees outside or just closing the shades when it's really hot is what people can do but then you also have organizations like the Red Cross where we're providing first aid for people who are affected by heat stroke for examp example helping people recognize the signs of heat related illnesses and take action before it's too late and then of course um cities and governments can work to together to develop heat action plans and that means essentially knowing what they're going to do what services are they going to provide when there is a heatwave are they going to open up a cooling center are they going to uh distribute water ensuring that people have adequate access to electricity which they need in order to cool their homes um during a heat wve ring thank you very much for coming on the program thank you thanks right we're going to take a closer look at what's happening with the weather in the United States now our correspondent n ikbal is in Washington DC hi nomia just talk us through what's happening well leis today is officially the first day of summer and what a start you've got more than a quarter of the population that's under an excessive heat advisory and generally 135 million people are in imped and temperatures have hit more than 90° fah and are expected to go well over 100 uh from the Ohio Valley to The Mid Atlantic right up to New England I mean Maine if you think about that that's the easternmost state in the US doesn't usually get excessive heat but it's thought that records will be broken there um and in some parts of uh on the East Coast like New York City school is out for some uh a lot of schools uh closed up uh today to let children go home early uh because of the excessive heat uh over on the west coast we're seeing these wildfires break out and it's worth mentioning that this happens but it's happening more frequently with more ferocity uh two people were killed in New Mexico you know we heard there some of the advice that's been given and generally the advice is especially for vulnerable people children the elderly those who work Outdoors especially here you see them like a lot of construction workers in parts of DC to just really look after yourself seek shade make sure you drink lots of water here in DC it's it's about about 90° fah there is some cloud cover so it doesn't feel as as sort of Stuffy and swampy and stifling as it has been in the past few days but the temperatures here are expected to hit uh over 100 over 100 degre fahit uh um during the weekend and there will be some rest bites a meteorologists reckon that the temperatures might dip dip low but then they will come right back back up again next week and onwards and nor given everything you've just told talked about there has this seeped into the political discourse any reaction from authorities well it's usually the same author sort of you know messages that we get is just keep safe you know as much as you can um you know it's it's kind of sort of Follow The Common Sense advice but as I mentioned for those who are in a certain group children the elderly those who work outside need to work outside all day just just manage that you know drink as much water as possible get shade where you can there are like lots of trees around here in DC you know we're sort of standing under one so we can get some shade but just try and uh you know look after yourself in that way there are also those vulnerable people who take certain kinds of medicine that you really can't regulate in this kind of heat so it's you know warnings for them as well so that that's just generally the advice look it always gets hot in DC I have to say you know I've been here for a few years and every summer it's really really hot H I think this the prediction is that it's going to get much much hotter so just you know really heed that advice n yet thank you so much for that

Channel: BBC News

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Id: HhaoGcHXV2w

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024