Hawaii Is Sinking Faster Than We Thought
Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.
With 2024 on track to be the hottest year on record, the summer months were exceptionally hot, according to a new report from Climate Central.
The report says that during June, July and August, 50% of the world’s population experienced unusually hot temperatures, and 25% didn't get a break from the heat during the entire summer.
“I think every time we do these calculations, what really pops out is the kind of chronic exposure to unusual, climate-driven temperatures,” said Dr. Andrew Pershing, Vice President for science at Climate Central and one of the authors on the report. “In the tropical band around the planet, we really are seeing that they're experiencing day after day of temperatures that are strongly altered by climate change.”
(MORE: Park Visitor’s Action Could Have Huge Impacts)
Extreme heat is considered the deadliest weather-related hazard globally. Pershing worries that places that are already prone to extreme heat could be the most vulnerable.
“Places like the Caribbean or Central America are places that are always hot, but they are now hotter, and that creates additional stress,” said Pershing.
(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)
More than 2 billion people (25% of the global population) experienced 30 or more days of "risky" heat that were made at least three times more likely by climate change, according to the analysis. Risky heat days are defined as days hotter than 90% of the temperatures recorded in a local area from 1991-2020. When risky heat days are present, heat-related health risks rise.
Across the globe, 72 countries, home to more than 2.3 billion people, experienced their hottest summer since at least 1970. In the Northern Hemisphere, 180 cities had at least one extreme heat wave over the summer. The analysis indicated that the intensity and duration of these heat waves were 21 times more likely because of climate change.
“Climate change is altering the world around us,” said Pershing. “The temperatures that we experienced this summer in just about everywhere we look has a strong climate fingerprint, and that means that these conditions are not normal.”
While a heat wave in Minnesota might have lower temperatures than what’s considered a heat wave in Arizona, the impacts to the body are the same. However, Pershing says we can help control these temperatures that are driven by climate change.
“If we can reduce carbon pollution, we can actually avoid this getting worse, and we can have time to prepare and adapt."
