Columbia Uni Study Maps Global Heat-Wave Hotspots
Scientists are currently unable to fully explain or understand this phenomenon.
Extreme heat waves are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity than expected.
New heat wave hotspots are emerging in various parts of the world, appearing on every continent except Antarctica, like angry skin blotches, according to a new study by the University of Columbia.
These heat waves are breaking temperature records by large margins and pose an existential threat to various forms of life on the planet. They have taken the lives of thousands in Europe, China, and parts of North America, as well as damaging crops and causing wildfires.
2023 is the hottest year so far, with temperatures 2.12°F higher than the average for the 20th century. The previous record was set in 2016, and 2024 is already on track to break all records. Even worse, the hotspots depicted by the university are breaking records in ways that climate models can’t fully explain.
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“The large and unexpected margins by which recent regional-scale extremes have broken earlier records have raised questions about the degree to which climate models can provide adequate estimates of relations between global mean temperature changes and regional climate risks,” notes the study.
“This is about extreme trends that are the outcome of physical interactions we might not completely understand,” said lead author Kai Kornhuber, an adjunct scientist at the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “These regions become temporary hothouses.”
Where are they happening?
The study says that these events are happening in areas such as central China, Japan, Korea, the Arabian Peninsula, parts of Australia, and northern regions like Canada’s Northwest Territories and Greenland. Extreme heat waves in 2022 in Europe claimed more than 60,000 lives, with another 47,000 in 2023. Countries like Germany, France, and the UK are bearing the brunt of this calamity.
They have also spread to new areas that do not usually experience such extreme temperatures, particularly the US and many parts of northwestern Europe, which are reeling under sweltering heat that is well beyond what climate models predict.
Why does this happen?
The exact reason for why this is happening is not fully learned, although rising global temperatures contribute to more heat waves. An explanation from Europe and Russia is that the jet stream, a fast-moving, narrow band of air that circles the globe in the upper atmosphere, flowing from west to east, is disrupted when the Arctic warms faster than other areas. This causes hot air to linger longer in regions that do not typically experience such extreme heat.
Explanations from other areas, such as the Pacific Northwest heatwave, involve multiple factors. In the last 10 to 20 years, rising temperatures have dried out vegetation, preventing plants from cooling the air. With a lack of moisture in plants, when a heat wave hits, it becomes uncontrollable and even worse.
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“Due to their unprecedented nature, these heat waves are usually linked to very severe health impacts, and can be disastrous for agriculture, vegetation and infrastructure,” said Kornhuber. “We’re not built for them, and we might not be able to adapt fast enough.”
To learn more about the study, click here.
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Source: Columbia University
