Hundredfold increase in Mediterranean heat episodes due to Climate Change

Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Algeria experienced an episode of suffocating heat at the end of April 2023, a phenomenon that should have been more typical of summer. The chances of such an occurrence were increased by at least a hundred times by the climate crisis, according to international climate scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network. These extreme temperatures would have been nearly impossible without human-caused climate change. The temperatures were up to 3.5 degrees higher than they would have been in a scenario without a climate emergency.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) network analyzes data in real-time to identify links between the climate emergency and extreme events, such as heat waves, droughts, and storms as they occur in the world. In their research, ten researchers from the WWA network with experts from universities and meteorological agencies from France, Morocco, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have identified a strong link between climate change and extreme temperatures at the end of April in southwestern Europe and northern Africa.

According to the study, Portugal, mainland Spain, Morocco, and Algeria recorded extremely high temperatures at the end of April, never before recorded there at this time of year. Some locations in these countries recorded up to twenty degrees more than the average for the time of year. The heatwave adds to the already-existing situations of historical drought in those regions, exacerbating the impacts of heat in areas such as agriculture, which is already threatened by increasing water scarcity.

The study warns that extreme temperatures are increasing faster in Europe than what climate models had advanced. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, temperatures will continue to increase, leading to more frequent and severe heat waves at abnormal times. Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate and Environmental Change warns that such phenomena will continue until greenhouse gas emissions stop.