Study finds climate change made U.S. heat wave virtually impossible

3 min read

A World Weather Attribution study found that the extreme heat and humidity driven by a strong heat dome over much of the United States and southern Canada would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change. The researchers used climate models comparing today’s world, warmed by 2.5F (1.4C) since pre-industrial times, with a world without emissions and estimated that the current WBGT extremes are roughly one-in-200-year events today but would be about once every 5,000 years without warming. The study tested El Niño effects and found minor cooling, while forecast WBGT above 82F at some World Cup kick-offs raises safety concerns.

Climate change made current extreme WBGT levels virtually impossible