The heat wave that left greater than 100 million people sweating in the eastern United States in June 2024 hit so quickly and was so extreme that forecasters warned of flash drought could spread over large areas of the region.
Long-term high temperatures can dry out soil quickly, causing a rapidly approaching drought that would affect agriculture, water resources, and energy supplies. Many regions under June’s heat dome have developed rapidly extremely dry conditions.
NOAA Climate Prediction Center
The effects of the heat wave on humans were also widespread. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, emergency room visits heat-related illnesses have increased. Several Massachusetts schools without air-con closed to guard children and teachers. In New York and New Jersey, the electrical wires were hanging from the heatshutting down trains to and from New York, leaving commuters with no technique of survival.
we’re learning weather patterns warmly embracing. The heatwave in June 2024 was unusually early and long-lasting in comparison with the heatwave typical patterns for the Northeastern United States
It was attributable to a big high-pressure system called a heat dome that prolonged from the ground greater than 10 miles up through the atmosphere. A heat dome is each a cause and an effect of maximum heat. Very large and powerful heat domes, reminiscent of the nor’easter event – which reached higher into the atmosphere than any previous event in June – have a greater potential for higher temperatures to affect more people.
Mathew Barlow of the University of Massachusetts Lowell
It was also a part of a world early-season heatwave that put human lives in danger in lots of countries around the world.
Heat is becoming a world problem
In 2024, record-breaking heat hit several countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In Mexico and Central America, weeks of warmth, with temperatures reaching 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.8 degrees Celsius), combined with prolonged drought led to severe water shortages and dozens of deaths.
Extreme heat turns into tragedy in Saudi Arabia, over 1000 people on the Hajj pilgrimageMuslim pilgrimage to Mecca, fell and died. Temperatures reached 125 F (51.8 C) in the Great Mosque in Mecca, June 17.
AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool
In Greece, where temperatures exceeded 100°F (38°C) for several consecutive days in June, at the very least several tourists died or was feared dead after trekking in dangerous heat and humidity.
In April and May, India experienced several days of temperatures as high as 49°C, affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals, a lot of whom didn’t have air-con.
Climate Connection: This just isn’t normal
While heatwaves are a natural a part of the climate, their severity and extent this yr will not be “just summer.”
A scientific assessment of the U.S. heatwave estimates that the heatwave was that severe and long-lasting two to 4 times more likely occur today due to human-induced climate change than would have happened without it. This conclusion is consistent with rapid growth over the past few a long time, the variety of heatwaves in the US and their occurrence outside of peak summer.
These record-breaking heat waves are occurring in a climate that’s globally about 2.2 F (1.2 C) warmer than before the Industrial Revolution, when humans began emitting large amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gases.
NOAA NCEI
While a temperature difference of 1 or two degrees when entering one other room may not even be noticeable, even fractions of a level make an enormous difference in the global climate.
At the peak of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, when the northeastern United States was under 1000’s of feet of ice, the average global temperature was only 6°C (1.2°F) lower than it’s today. It’s no wonder that the 2.2 F (1.2 C) of warming up to now is already rapidly changing the climate.
Countries promised in 2015 under the Paris Agreement to maintain warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, but current government policies around the world is not going to meet these goalsTemperatures will proceed to rise, and will likely greater than double by the end of the century.
If you think that it was hot
While this summer is prone to be one among the hottest on record, it will be important to appreciate that it is also one among the coldest years in the future.
For populations particularly exposed to heat, including young children, the elderly and people working outdoors, the risk is even higher. People in lower income neighborhoods where air-con could also be unprofitable and tenants which frequently do not need the same cooling protection as heating may have to face increasingly dangerous conditions.
Extreme heat also can affect the economy. It can bend railway tracks and cause wires to sag, which ends up in delays and disruptions in transit. Maybe too overload high-demand electrical systems and result in power outages just when people need cooling the most.
Good news: There are solutions
Yes, the future in a warming world is horrifying. However, countries have made significant progress. In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has the potential to Reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half by 2035.
Replacing air conditioners with heat pumps and geothermal network systems It cannot only reduce fossil fuel emissions, but in addition provide cooling at lower costs. cost of renewable energy continues to say no and that is true for a lot of countries increasing political support and incentives.
National Climate Assessment 2023
Humanity can do much to limit future warming in countries, corporations and people around the world act urgently. Rapidly cutting fossil fuel emissions could help avoid a hotter future with even worse heatwaves and droughts, while also providing other advantages, including improving public health, creating jobs and reducing threats to ecosystems.
