Southern California has been struck by a heat wave, with recent temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius. A university research report points out that under the trend of global warming, the duration and frequency of heat waves will increase significantly in the coming decades, posing ever-growing threats to society and the environment.
This study from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was published this week in the journal “Nature Geoscience.” The research team found that in the future, heat waves will not only occur more frequently, but will also last increasingly longer, with their rate of increase even outpacing the average rate of global temperature rise.
According to a UCLA press release, Professor David Neelin of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences pointed out that every increase in Earth's temperature has an even greater impact on the duration of heat waves.
As a heat wave is currently striking Southern California, Europe experienced a heat wave in early July, with high temperature warnings across various regions, causing nearly 2,000 schools to suspend classes in France, Italy to regulate outdoor working hours, record-breaking temperatures in Spain, and wildfires in Turkey forcing 50,000 people to evacuate.
The UCLA research report points out that over the next few decades, heat waves will become hotter, occur more frequently, and last longer.
Neelin stated: “This acceleration means that if the warming trend continues, human adaptation actions will have to keep up even faster, especially with respect to the most persistent extreme heat waves.”
The research team used a climate formula to analyze how variations in temperature in different regions affect subsequent heat wave patterns. The study found that heat waves will become the weather pattern with the largest increase in the future; for example, over the next 20 years, the probability of more than 35 days of heat waves in equatorial Africa will rise 60-fold compared to previous estimates.
Longer-lasting heat waves will increase the risk of wildfires, make crops more prone to withering, and present even greater challenges for urban infrastructure. Neelin called for improving the accuracy of climate forecasting to assist regions in urban planning, power dispatching, and agricultural disaster prevention layouts. (Source: Central News Agency)