A sign of things to come- the heatwave as experienced across the world and what to expect in the future

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Bianca in Year 11 reflects on the heatwave and its implications not just for us, but globally.

It feels as though summer has truly arrived, albeit somewhat earlier than expected? The spotless skies and the struggle to fall asleep because your room feels like a sauna all contribute to the feeling that the holidays are just around the corner. Or have the past few weeks been hinting to a slightly different future for us?

Comparing notes across the Channel

Basking in the sun in our garden we talk to my grandparents over the phone. We enjoyed the fact that for the first time in a while the weather in the UK was somewhat similar to what they were experiencing in Italy. However there wasn’t much to enjoy about the reality of the heatwave they were experiencing in Tuscany. My grandparents live in one of the region’s many valleys, which may sound idyllic but was anything but considering the weather. Their location in a valley prevents them from getting any respite from the heat by the cool breezes the hills get and so they bear the 33 degree heat in its full force. It made the day to day harder that week considering the risk the intense heat posed to their health being elderly.

This wasn’t normal for Tuscany this time of year nor was it a local anomaly. My dad, in his usual fashion exaggeratedly claimed it reached 39C in Rome. I think one of us got our European capitals mixed up because this was in fact the maximum temperature in Paris. However the highs of 34C in Rome were still unbelievable, as though 39 degrees in June anywhere in Europe wasn’t just ridiculous. In these regions of Europe, the highest average temperatures for June are usually around 25-27C.

Thus, this European heatwave is not normal. And it is certainly not sustainable.

Back here in the UK, the extreme heat has lead to delays on train lines and even small fires! Coupled with the strikes this week, the heatwave has made travel just that bit harder. However the impacts of the heatwave have stretched far wider than just this country.

In France, public gatherings and concerts were completely called off. A local official told a French radio rather ominously that, ‘everyone now faces a health risk’. As a result of everyone sheltering indoors, the increased use of air conditioning has actually driven France to import electricity from other countries, unable to sustain the increased use of energy. Just across the border, a forest fire in Spain’s Catalonia is threatening to grow to 20,000 hectares before it can be contained.

Europe wasn’t the only continent to experience an early summer this year. In India, the hottest months are usually late April and mid-May. However this year saw the hottest temperatures since 1901 for India, in March. Cities saw highs of 45C with neighbouring Pakistan experiencing 49.5C too. The impact of this heatwave was felt in various different ways. Agriculture especially took a toll with the inconveniently timed heatwave killing wheat plants just before its harvest. This is especially concerning for India given how wheat exports were meant to be increased in order to fill gaps caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now made much harder thanks to the extreme weather.

Not a one-off event

But can we not just put our heatwave down to that south-westerly airflow reported by the weather people? Not entirely. This specific heatwave had a cause rooted in global circulation systems but no matter what the cause, scientists affirm that global warming will cause what could have been milder heatwaves to last longer and stronger. This means that these unnatural heatwaves and their implications are the first signs of global warming. And we are only just starting to see what extreme weather could look like in the future, and if its worse than what has been experienced across the world this year, its not looking great.

This is certainly a bleak conclusion to make that I hope hasn’t soured your enjoyment of the nice weather. However rather than dampening spirits, this should more than ever be a call to arms to do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint in order that if we experience extreme heatwaves in the future it will be because of natural causes and not because of the impact our greenhouse gas emissions have had on our planet.