heat ,Parts of Europe, China, and the United States are sweltering in record-breaking heat .
As high temperatures highlight the dangers of a warming climate, tens of millions are under heat warnings.
Heatwaves are gripping parts of Europe, China, and the United States, where record temperatures are expected this weekend, highlighting the dangers of climate change.
More than 100 million people in the United States have been issued extreme heat advisories, with the National Weather Service forecasting hazardous conditions in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas.
Several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland, are also baking in extreme heat.
The Acropolis, Greece’s most popular tourist attraction, was closed during the hottest hours on Friday, when temperatures in the capital, Athens, reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Volunteers from the Hellenic Red Cross handed out bottled water to tourists waiting in long lines to climb the steps to the Parthenon temple.
Authorities have also warned of an increased risk of forest fires, especially in areas with forecast strong winds.
Temperatures in Rome are expected to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday. The Italian Red Cross’ Valerio Mattia warned that the population is “unaware of the danger that this climatic phenomenon could pose in terms of health.”
According to Mattia, the organisation has been conducting an awareness campaign on how to respond to heatwaves and operates a hotline to assist socially isolated people.
According to the European Space Agency, temperatures on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia could reach 48 degrees Celsius (118.4 degrees Fahrenheit), potentially setting “the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.”
The European record of 48.8C (119.8F) was set in Sicily in August 2021.
Extreme heat and downpours
In other news, temperatures in parts of eastern Japan are expected to reach 38°C to 39°C (100.4°F to 102.2°F) on Sunday and Monday, with Japan’s meteorological agency warning that temperatures could break previous records.
This week, a major Chinese power company reported that its power generation for a single day reached a record high, as parts of China, including Beijing, experienced record temperatures.
While some were baking in the sun, others in China were experiencing torrential downpours. Following heavy rains, numerous rivers in Chongqing, a sprawling municipality in southwest China, threatened to overflow their banks.
State media said the government braced for more extreme weather and issued heightened warnings for heavy rain in 24 districts and counties on Friday.
According to the Xinhua news agency, over 2,600 residents in Chongqing were evacuated early Friday. According to state television, a waterfall of rain engulfed cars and trucks, and rivers of thick brown mud buried tractors and lorries on the streets.
According to the region’s meteorological service and water resources authority, intense rainstorms are expected to hit central and eastern parts of the area, prompting a red alert in North China’s Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua reported.
Changing weather patterns
El Nino, a climate pattern, may have contributed to this year’s higher temperatures.
El Nino events occur every two to seven years. They are characterised by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific near the equator for nine to twelve months.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, water temperatures off the southern coast of Florida have surpassed 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).
Surface temperatures in the Mediterranean will be “exceptionally high” in the coming days and weeks, according to the World Meteorological Organization, exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, several degrees above average.
Warming ocean temperatures can have disastrous consequences for aquatic ecosystems in terms of survival and migration and a negative impact on the fishing industry.
A new study led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton, UK, discovered a change in the colour of at least 56 per cent of our oceans over the last 20 years – an area larger than all of the land on Earth.
The scientists discovered that tropical ocean regions near the equator have become steadily greener over time, implying that ecosystems within the surface ocean must also be changing to contain the green pigment chlorophyll.
According to BB Cael, one of the NOC ocean and climate scientists who contributed to the paper, computer simulations suggested the changes could be pretty damaging, albeit difficult to quantify.
“We don’t know what the changes to the ecosystems are right now,” Cael told Al Jazeera.
Colour shifts were most visible in tropical or subtropical oceans. “We tend not to see those changes in cooler seas, not necessarily because they aren’t happening, but because from year to year, there is so much variation in the colour of oceans already that it’s hard to say if the changes we’re seeing over time are significant or not,” Cael explained.
Since the mid-1800s, the world has warmed by nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit), causing more intense heatwaves, severe droughts in some areas, and storms exacerbated by warming and rising seas.
The United Nations has warned that the next five years will be the warmest on record due to the combination of greenhouse gases and El Nino.
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