A man cools off at a water misting station installed by the city due to heat wave in Seoul, South Korea, on June 20.is driving dangerous heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere this week and will continue to deliver dangerous weather for decades to come, research shows.
That higher baseline means climate change is already making all heat waves hotter than they would have been without atmospheric warming. They are also becoming more frequent overall – and more dangerous. Land cover can also play a role, with dark surfaces and built environments tending to get hotter than reflective white surfaces or than natural systems like forests or wetlands.
For example, scientists with World Weather Attribution have determined that the dangerous heat across South Asia in April was 45 times more likely to have occurred thanks to climate change. During that heat wave, thermometers in the northeast Indian city of Kolkata hit 46 C – a full 10 degrees higher than the seasonal average.Even if all carbon emissions were halted today, the world has already emitted enough to ensure that climate change will continue to push temperatures upward for decades.