Study Finds Extreme Heat Expanded Across Half the World Since the 1980s
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Sep 14
Study Finds Extreme Heat Expanded Across Half the World Since the 1980s
3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Sep 14
Summary
Forty-five years of climate data show dangerous heat now arrives in spring and fall across about half the world’s land area, comparing 2015-2024 with a 1980-1989 baseline.
The AGU Advances study found the shift is uneven: western Europe, southern Africa and northwestern India saw more extreme heat before summer, while the western U.S., eastern China, northern Africa and eastern Europe saw more after summer.
Climate simulations reproduced stronger heat in the core summer season but not the lopsided expansion at its edges, leaving the regional timing pattern only partly explained.
That timing shift raises risks because people and public protections are built around a summer calendar, even as NOAA said the Lower 48 just logged their warmest June-August in 132 years and August set a global heat-humidity record.