WASHINGTON: Deadly heat that blanketed the US, Mexico and Central America recently was made 35 times more likely due to global warming, an international network of climate scientists said on Thursday. The World Weather Attribution also said that extreme highs witnessed over that region were four times as likely to occur today as a quarter of a century ago.
For its study, WWA analysed the hottest five consecutive days and nights during a “heat dome” that lingered over the southwest US, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras in late May and early June. They concluded “that human-induced warming from burning fossil fuels made the five-day maximum temperature event about 1.4 hotter and about 35 times more likely”. WWA warned if humans continue burning fossil fuels in the near term, these extremes could become more frequent still. “The additional 1.4C of heat caused by climate change is the difference between life and death,” said Karina Izquierdo of Red Cross Climate Centre.
