Heat Waves Across the World

There may be divisions in the nation and in the world but one thing all of us on Earth experience in common: climate change. We can’t run from it and we can no longer pretend that humans have nothing to do with rising temperatures. Humans have accelerated the evolutionary cyclical climate change, which normally happens very slowly. This is evident in a few ways including the rise of the global temperature. The Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.14 degree Fahrenheit per decade since 1880 but the rate of warming since 1981 is more than twice that at 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. The sixth warmest year on record was in 2021, based on the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to climate.gov.

Then there is the heat wave that has gripped so much of the Earth this week. On Tuesday, five weather stations in the United Kingdom, from London to Lincolnshire, recorded high temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, which is 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the UK’s Met Office (Meteorological Office).

Following London’s first red warning for extreme heat, which was announced last Friday, on Tuesday just before 1 p.m. provisional data showed that Heathrow Airport was the first station to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Nights were also exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas, with temperatures of 25.8 degrees Celsius (78.44 degrees Fahrenheit) being recorded overnight at Kenley in Surrey, creating a provisional new maximum nighttime temperature record, according to Met.

But the UK is not the only sweltering area. China has had three heat waves so far this summer breaking temperature records. Western Europe has already been experiencing severe drought and now heat has fueled fires across Portugal, Spain and France. In addition, the UK is facing fires.

According to London mayor Sadiq Khan, London’s fire service had its busiest day since WWII with several fires burning throughout the area.

The U.S. is facing heat waves as well: “Dangerous and record-breaking heat is forecast across much of the south central U.S. [Wednesday], and is expected to linger through much of this week. In total, over 100 million people are currently within heat related warnings and advisories,” according to the National Weather Service.

Southern Californians have been experiencing some heat but not as extreme as in other states.

“We are going into a little bit of a cooling trend,” said Mike Wofford, NOAA meteorologist, Oxnard. He added it won’t be a significant cool down but the area is not going to see any extreme hot temperatures through next week – nothing compared to what other states are dealing with.

Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher called temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit in the UK “virtually impossible” without the human-driven climate change.

“I think it is safe to say we will be seeing more of these [extreme heat waves] over time with climate change,” Wofford said.

And it is not just warmer temperatures; there will be longer durations of heat waves, he added.

For the Crescenta Valley and surrounding areas, today, Thursday, is predicted to be 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 89 degrees on Friday and Saturday, and back up to 90 on Sunday then down to 87 and 86 degrees during the following week.