Without the influence of human-caused climate change, the heat that destroyed records in Britain last week would not have happened.
Even at current levels of global warming, the heat of last week is still very unusual for Britain. She and her colleagues found that the chances of seeing daytime highs in some parts of the country were less than one in 1,000.
The temperatures were at least 10 times as likely as they would have been in a world without greenhouse-gas emissions.
Friederike Otto is a climate scientist at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the report. Without climate change, it would not have been possible.
Scientists agree that global warming is a key driver of the increase in heat. As the burning of fossil fuels causes global temperatures to rise, the range of possible temperatures changes too, making it more likely that highs will occur. Changes in planetary chemistry caused by greenhouse gas emissions make every heat wave worse.
Prior to last week, the highest temperature Britain had ever recorded was 101.7 degrees, or 38.7 degrees. The Met Office warned Britons to prepare for new highs as temperatures climbed.
On the morning of July 19 in the village of Charlwood, the mercury broke the old record. By the end of the day, 46 weather stations in England had temperatures that exceeded the previous national record. Stations beat their own records by a wide margin.
The trains were slowed because of the fear of the steel rails collapsing. The Fire brigade said it was their busiest day since World War II because of the grass fires. Preliminary analysis shows that more people may have died in England and Wales than would have been normal.
World Weather Attribution is an alliance of climate scientists that specialize in rapid studies of extreme weather events to evaluate the degree to which global warming was behind them. Humans have spent more than a century adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere in a world that could have been without that activity.
Peer-reviewed methods are used in the analysis of the heat in Britain.
The group found that the heat wave that broiled South Asia this spring had been 30 times more likely to occur because of global warming emissions.
The hot start to the summer was caused by a high-pressure area that brought warm air from North Africa. England is having its driest July in more than 100 years. When the soil is dry, the sun's energy goes to heating the air instead of the water on the ground, which can lead to hotter temperatures.
Changes in the jet stream have led to a rise in heat waves in Europe over the last four decades, according to scientists.
Climate researchers wondered if hot extremes were appearing more quickly than their models were accounting for after the heat was so off the charts. An athlete beat the long jump record by 2 or 3 feet, and it was the climate equivalent, according to a professor.
The evidence so far shows that the events are not unforeseeable. Global warming, with its seemingly small increases in average temperatures, was raising the likelihood that heat records would be shattered.
The question is if policymakers will use this knowledge to prepare better in the future.
One of the authors of the report on the heat in Britain said that the conditions are human made. Poor planning and lack of attention to homeless people are some of the conditions that exist.
A recent study led by Vikki Thompson, a climate scientist at the University of Bristol, found that most of the increase in heat extremes could be explained by higher average temperatures caused by climate change. They are increasing in intensity but not as fast as the mean.
The pace of increase is making it difficult for countries to cope. Britain's rail system was designed to run at a safe temperature. Houses were designed to keep heat in during cold winters. The warm weather is welcome relief from the cold.
People in Britain aren't taking it as seriously as they could be. Most people think of a heat wave as a great thing to happen. They would like to get some heat.
She said that when it's 40 degrees it starts to change.
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