UK's 40C heatwave 'basically impossible' without climate change

Image source, PA Media

The UK's temperature last week was almost impossible without human-caused climate change, according to leading scientists.

On July 19th, the UK recorded temperatures above 40C.

The experts say that without human-caused climate change these would have been cooler.

They say it's a taste of what's to come, with more heatwaves, fires and droughts predicted in the future.

Excess deaths related to temperatures will be high as a result of the extreme heat. Nature and homes were destroyed by the fires.

Since the industrial revolution, the world has warmed by about 1.1C. Burning fuels have heated up the Earth's atmosphere by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The World Weather Attribution group is a collection of leading climate scientists who meet after extreme weather events to determine if climate change made it more likely.

They looked at the weather stations that recorded the highest temperatures.

Dr Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, who leads the World Weather Attribution group, said that it was rare to have such temperatures in today's climate.

She said that as global temperatures rose, the chance of this heat happening more frequently would increase.

She said that we wouldn't have had last week's temperatures if it weren't for climate change. The real temperature is closer to 4C higher than a world without human-caused climate change, she said.

A combination of looking at temperature records dating back through time, and complex mathematical models that assess how human-caused climate change affects the weather is used by the scientists.

Dr Otto says that since we know how many greenhouse gases have been put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we can take these things out of the model.

The scientists can compare the two scenarios, one with 1.1C of warming and the other without.

The UK needs to reach net zero very soon if we want to keep this type of heat a rare event. We stopped adding to the amount of greenhouse gases at that point. Net zero is the government's goal by the year 2050.

Warming makes these types of events more likely. Climate change is a game-changer for heatwaves because they are more deadly than floods.

The scientists say it shows that the UK is not adapted to warm temperatures, with our homes, hospitals, schools and travel networks unable to cope.

Extreme heat this year has affected countries such as India, the US, Australia and Spain.

Politicians around the world are committed to keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C.

Rosie Rogers said that the climate has already changed because of government inaction. How bad things get depends on how much governments do to stop using fossil fuels.

She said that the UK has an obligation to slash emissions to zero. The new prime minister should act on the warnings from the climate and set an example.

Scientists say we need to make steep cuts to our emissions, change how we produce and use energy, and protect nature in order to tackle climate change.