"Heat extremes" refers to situations where there is an extremely high temperature. It means experiencing unusually hot or scorching weather conditions.
Full definition
The significant increase
in heat extremes we have witnessed associated with a small shift in the global average temperature is consistent with climate change.
Nearly three times more weather stations hit record highs than lows in 2011, in line with a trend of
increasing heat extremes.
Nor all the floods and fires and droughts all over the world this decade and the fact that there are many
more heat extremes than cold extremes.
Up to three quarters of the world's population could be at risk from deadly
heat extremes by the end of the century, a new study suggests.
As temperatures rise,
heat extremes on a par with the heat waves are also becoming more common.
Since 1980, researchers have recorded more than 800 instances in
which heat extremes claimed lives.
So with climate change / global warming, we will still experience more warming overall, leading to an increase
in heat extremes.
The amount of heat going into the oceans, the rate of sea level rise and the
increasing heat extremes are more reliable or more relevant measures.
This included an event - specific attribution study on the 2013 New Zealand drought, as well as highlighting differences in the emergence of
heat extremes for the global population when aggregated by income grouping.
This means that the world is unlikely to be able to avoid impacts projected close to 1.5 C, including major damage to coral reef systems and the emergence of regular occurrences of
unusual heat extremes of over a substantial land area.
The historic period was also analysed, and the results showed that the models can accurately reproduce the observed rise in
monthly heat extremes over the past 50 years.
Looking
at heat extremes, for example, the IPCC report notes that human influence has already doubled the occurrence of heat waves in some locations.
In their study, Dim Coumou, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Alexander Robinson, from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, used state - of - the - art climate models to project changes in the trend of
heat extremes under two future warming scenarios — RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 — throughout the 21st century.
They have also addressed the health challenges of fossil fuel combustion as a source of pollution and raised the alarm about deaths
from heat extremes that are likely to be greater than any reductions in premature deaths because of warmer winters.
Palmer amaranth grows very fast, germinates throughout the season, produces lots of seeds, can
tolerate heat extremes and is very adaptable, researchers report.
The world has already warmed by roughly 0.85 degree C since 1880 and
further heat extremes are «virtually certain.»
The study, «Future population exposure to
U.S. heat extremes,» is in the May 18 issue of Nature Climate Change.
As we showed in the second TDTH report in 2013,
unprecedented heat extremes also become very significant in some regions around 1.5 C warming.
While local adaptation planners might be primarily be interested in how the patterns of
heat extremes align with changes in population over their immediate community, it is equally important for decision makers to recognise the broader implications of heat exposure increases driven by future changes in where people live.
Clark R, Brown S, Murphy, J: Modelling northern hemisphere
summer heat extreme changes and their uncertainties using a physics ensemble of climate sensitivity experiments.
Cities in particular are vulnerable — they are normally significantly warmer than their rural hinterland — and the ability to make long - term forecasts of potentially
murderous heat extremes could save lives.
But US scientists have been among the world pioneers in climate research, and have led both the latest studies of
Asian heat extremes.
Climate scientists have repeatedly warned of the dangers of ever more intense and
frequent heat extremes as the global average temperatures creep up, and two new studies have identified different ways in which cities themselves can become danger zones for vulnerable people.
Global temperature rise of 2C could see Australia hit by
heat extremes similar to the «angry summer» of 2012 - 13 in almost four out of every five... Read More
The answer is no surprise: if the once - in -20-years event arrives every year, then in future
such heat extremes will be more extreme than anything experienced today.
«So even a modest rise in sea level could help lower the water temperature of the reef and may also partially reduce
reef heat extremes in the world's warming oceans.»
Another group argued that even if the global averages had only crept up, the levels recorded
during heat extremes had certainly got much higher, which nullified the idea of a slowdown.
Millions of people in Asia and Europe can expect
fiercer heat extremes, even if the world makes promised emissions cuts.
LONDON, 23 February, 2018 — The big heat is on the way: over 50 % of Europe, and across more than a quarter of east Asia, the probability of record -
breaking heat extremes will increase fivefold.
The example given in the World Bank's press release illustrates the scale of the risk of warming even at 1.5 C for
unusual heat extremes.
«Historic and future increase in the global land area affected by
monthly heat extremes» (Dim Coumou and Alexander Robinson 2013 Environ.
The reduced day - to - day variability that we observed makes weather more persistent, resulting in
heat extremes on monthly timescales.
[1] Changing population dynamics and uneven temperature emergence combine to exacerbate regional exposure to
heat extremes under 1.5 °C and 2 °C of warming, Environmental Research Letters, February 2018
«Last year was the warmest on record and the UN panel of climate scientists says man - made climate change is already visible in
more heat extremes, downpours and rising sea levels as ice melts from the Alps to the Andes,» the paper declared.
The trees that shade the parks and gardens and line the urban streets — London planes, limes, magnolias, pines and so on — are known to add to property values and to make living conditions better for millions who must endure the
increasing heat extremes of the urban world.
According to the research, tropical regions will see the strongest increase
in heat extremes, exceeding the threshold that is defined by the historic variability in the specific region.
However, determining population exposure to the impacts
of heat extremes at 1.5 °C and 2 °C of global warming requires not only a robust understanding of the physical climate system response, but also consideration of projected changes to overall population size, as well as where people will live in the future.
«Our results indicate that areas of eastern Texas, Florida, the south - east and mid-Atlantic are areas where rapid population growth, acting in concert with a warming climate, will lead to a significant increase in exposure to
heat extremes,» says Jones.
Those heat extremes, the hottest in the country's observational record, were likely caused by man - made climate change, according to a new study accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Heat extremes have adverse effects on human health and increase the risk of death across regions in the world,» Zhao said.
«Of course,
heat extremes are on the rise almost everywhere on the globe, purely because we're warming the air,» Coumou says.
It can tolerate drought and
heat extremes that would kill other plants.