Many new heat records broken around the world in recent years

A woman holds a portable fan at a business district in Tokyo, Monday, July 23, 2018. Searing hot temperatures are forecast for wide swaths of Japan and South Korea in a long-running heat wave. The mercury is expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday in the city of Nagoya in central Japan and reach 37 in Tokyo. Deaths have been reported almost every day. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

On Monday, a new heat record was introduced in Japan. Since the beginning of 2015, there have been new heat records in many countries around the world.

 

41.1 degrees Celsius is the new heat record in Japan. It was made in the city of Kumagaya just north of Tokyo on Monday afternoon,local time.

The record came after Japan has experienced far higher temperatures than usual for the season in recent weeks.The official figures in Japan show that twelve people have so far lost their lives as a result of the heat.

51.3 degrees in Algeria

At the same time, a number of other countries have experienced heat waves these past days, and at home we are now in one of the warmest summers of modern times. Currently, no new maximum record has been set in Norway this summer, although we have now had more than 30 days when it has been registered over 30 degrees at one or more measurement stations. The highest measured temperature so far was 35.6 degrees, which was in Nesbyen in Buskerud on June 20, 1970.

In recent years, however, a number of other countries have set new heat records. Earlier this summer, Algeria rated its heat record of 51.3 degrees. Last summer,Spain set a new heat record of 47.3 degrees.Germany has also broken a record for heat in recent years, of 40.3 degrees in the summer of 2015. Our neighbouring country,Finland, broke a heat record in the summer of 2010, with 37.2 degrees.

In Sweden this week, there was also hot weather recorded at some measuring stations, although it is not certain whether the national record of 38 degrees from 1933 and 1947 will be reached.

Not just climate change

According to climate scientists, we are likely to experience more heat waves and new heat sequences in the years to come, partly as a result of climate change. 2017 was one of the three warmest years ever measured, and all 17 of the 18 warmest years since 1860 have been after 2000.

Climate researcher Dann Mitchell at the University of Bristol in the UK is nevertheless aware that the heat of the northern hemisphere today is not due solely to climate change.

“There have been some incredible records that have been set in recent weeks. Nevertheless, we should not overestimate the impact of climate change, because it is clear that other factors have also occurred,” Mitchell told The Guardian newspaper.

He said that one of these factors is the jet currents that are gaining momentum in the atmosphere.

“The jet stream we are experiencing now is extremely weak and as a result, high pressure areas remain for a long time over the same place,” Mitchell said.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today