climate
WMO: Heatwave is “Foretaste of the Future”
After the warm and dry spring, the Landesbetrieb HessenForst fears increasing problems for the Hessian forests, which are already badly affected by drought, bark beetles and storms. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
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The prognosis is bleak: According to expert opinion, heat waves will start earlier in the future, they will become more frequent and even more violent. Why is that?
According to the United Nations, heat waves will occur as unusually early and intensely as they did in Europe this week. “Unfortunately, what we are experiencing today is a foretaste of the future,” said Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Weather Organization (WMO), on Friday in Geneva, referring to climate change.
The extremely high temperatures that have spread from North Africa across southern Europe and are expected in Switzerland and Germany this weekend are more typical of July or August, according to the WMO.
In some parts of Spain and France, thermometers have climbed more than ten degrees above the mean for this time of year, Nullis reported. Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Serbia are affected by drought. Outside of Europe, heat warnings were issued to almost a third of the population in the United States in the middle of this week.
“As a result of climate change, heat waves are starting earlier and becoming more frequent and intense,” said Nullis. This is due to the record high concentrations of gases in the atmosphere that cause the greenhouse effect.
DWD also warns
Meanwhile, the Climate Director of the German Weather Service (DWD), Tobias Fuchs, warned that in the next few years it could be up to one degree warmer in Germany than in the past three decades. According to Fuchs, climate change will continue to have a significant impact on Germany in the coming years. According to the DWD, the trend towards rising average temperatures is already evident this summer. A temperature increase of up to one degree compared to the long-term average of 17.6 degrees from 1991 to 2020 is forecast for all regions of Germany.