Rising Temperatures in Phoenix: Understanding the Dangerous Heatwave Effects and the Role of Climate Change

2023-07-25 05:34:04

UpdateIt is so hot in Phoenix, in the US state of Arizona, that people are burning themselves just by falling to the ground, a burn treatment center said on Monday.

A doctor told CNN that some of the burns were life-threatening. “External surface temperatures can reach 82 degrees Celsius, and deep skin burns can occur after brief contact,” according to Dr. Kevin Foster of Valleywise Health’s Arizona Burn Center. “Exposure often occurs in patients with impairments that prevent them from quickly removing themselves from such contact, resulting in serious injury.

24 consecutive days at 43°C or more in Phoenix

“The burns covered 5% to 23% of the individuals’ bodies,” the medical center found. “Even though most of the patients didn’t have significant large burns, many of them were badly affected.” As of Sunday, Phoenix had seen 24 straight days of high temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius, according to the National Weather Service. Babies, the elderly and pets are the most vulnerable to such heat.

Heatwaves “almost impossible” without climate change

More than 50 degrees in Death Valley in the United States, a historic record of 45.3°C in Catalonia, more than 43°C in Phoenix for 24 days: without climate change, such heat waves would have been “virtually impossible” in Europe and the United States, shows the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network on Tuesday. This scientific network, which assesses the link between extreme weather events and climate change, also believes that the latter has made the heat wave in China “at least 50 times more likely”.

“Hotter, longer, more frequent heatwaves”

Climate change, caused by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, “has made heat waves hotter, longer and more frequent,” the WWA points out. “Recent heat waves are no longer exceptional events” and those that will occur “will be even more intense and more common if emissions are not reduced quickly”, conclude the researchers. Because if natural phenomena such as anticyclones or El Nino can contribute to triggering these heat waves, “warming up the temperatures of the planet by burning fossil fuels is the main reason why they are so serious”, underlines the WWA.

The most dangerous heat periods under the magnifying glass

To reach these conclusions, the study’s authors – seven Dutch, British and American scientists – relied on historical weather data and climate models to compare today’s climate and its 1.2 degree global warming with what it once was. These results, produced on an emergency basis, are published without going through the long process of peer-reviewed journals, but combine methods approved by their peers. The scientists particularly looked at the times when the heat was “most dangerous,” July 12-18 in southern Europe, July 1-18 in the western United States, Texas and northern Mexico, and July 5-18 in central and eastern China.

Warming worsens the intensity of temperatures

They recalled that global warming worsens the intensity of temperatures: with it, heat waves in Europe are 2.5°C warmer, those in North America increase by 2°C and those in China by 1°C, indicates the WWA. July 2023 is “on track to become the hottest July ever measured”, according to NASA and the European observatory Copernicus. “In the past, such events would have been aberrant. But in today’s climate, they can now reproduce approximately every 15 years in North America, every 10 years in southern Europe and every 5 years in China”, explained during a telephone point Mariam Zachariah, scientist at Imperial College London, who contributed to the study.

A phenomenon that will become more and more regular

These heat waves “will become even more frequent and will occur every two to five years” if global warming reaches 2 degrees, “which could happen in about 30 years, unless all the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement fully implement their current commitments to rapidly reduce their emissions”, she added.