Global Heat Waves: The New Normal in a Warming World

Temperatures soared about ten degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times in central Asia two months ago, with parts of Philippines experiencing temperatures between 41 and 51 degrees Celsius, as many as 26 different areas in the country affected by extreme heat, people suffering from heat cramps, exhaustion, and heatstroke.

Temperatures soared in Africa last year, when the continent's average temperature was approximately 0.86 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 level, the figures representing one of the warmest years since record- keeping began over 120 years ago.

Temperatures soared once again in the first week of summer in the United States, as temperatures recorded 10 to 20 degrees above the average high in June for the region, figures riding into 102 degrees Fahrenheit in Boston, the hottest June day in the city since 1872, hitting 100 degrees in Baltimore and Fryeburg, Maine.

Temperatures keep rising across the continents, and with the arrival of summer last week, the situation seems to persist in Europe and North America, signs that the new normal is learning how to survive with heat waves.

There is about 70 percent possibility that the five-year average warming for 2025 to 2030 will be greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius, with one outlook for 2025 suggesting that it is likely to become one of the three warmest years for global average temperature, experts saying that heat waves are now 30 times more likely in some parts of the world.

There is also the possibility that the mean annual temperature increase for much of the Africa continent is projected to exceed two degrees Celsius or fall within the range of three degrees Celsius to six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the continent predicted to experience temperature rises more than the global average.

There is also the possibility that heat waves will become more prolonged, intense, and frequent in Asia, which is already warming at twice the global average, with countries on guard for more severe heat waves.

There are pointers that living with heat waves is the new normal in a world heating up from the emission of greenhouse gases through the exploration of fossil fuel, setting the stage for even more deadly extreme weather.

During the first global coral bleaching event in 1998, heat stress affected 21 percent of reefs, increasing to 37 percent twelve years later, 68 percent four years later, and hitting 84 percent between Jan 1 2023 to March 2025, the most devastating global coral bleaching event on record.

In the 1960s, heat waves took place in the United States at an average of two per year, increasing to six per year during the 2010s and 2020s, and are now four days long in major cities, about a day longer than the average heat wave in the 1960s.

In the year 2000, a substantial number of people were affected by heat waves, but the number of people exposed to them increased by at least 125 million between 2000 and 2016, while the number of workers affected hit an estimated 231 million in 2020, a 66 percent increase from 2000.

If heat waves are the new normal, it means they will entail a greater intensity of coral bleaching, increase in average number of heat waves per year, and exposure of an increasing number of people to it, seen within the context of the recent past.

Mitigating climate change by cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions comes as necessary to reduce the severity of human loss from events such as heat waves.

What to Eat

Vegan food from Fiji, Credit, Well Being.com