North America is burning: 54 degrees, wildfires, heat deaths

In early July, the hottest day in history was measured globally – four times in a row. From July 3 to 6, the average global temperature rose to the highest level since records began in 1979. The American broadcaster CNN reported that these were probably the hottest days on Earth in 100,000 years.

North America has been experiencing unprecedented extreme weather for months now: huge forests are burning in the north, rain falls like it only happens once every millennium, cities are flooded and the south is suffering from record heat. The damage is enormous – the efforts of the industrialized countries are manageable.

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It really doesn’t matter which part of the US or Canada you look at: climate disasters are never far away. While flooding has just subsided in New York and Vermont in the northeastern United States after heavy rains, the southwest is suffering in unbearable heat. The national weather service has issued a high temperature warning for at least 93 million people. “This is the result of a high pressure ridge over the southwestern United States that will intensify over the weekend,” he said.

54 degrees in California

The extreme heat wave in the southern United States has reached its first peak. In the famous Death Valley – the valley of death – in the state of California, 51 degrees Celsius were measured on Saturday afternoon. A record temperature of 54 degrees is expected for Sunday. In the national park, which is one of the hottest and driest regions on the planet in summer, not even the night, with 38 degrees, brings cooling.

In southern and central California, maximum temperatures of 41 to 43 degrees were reached on Saturday.

The US weather service had already warned people in large parts of the country of an “extremely hot and dangerous weekend”. Heat warnings were in effect for tens of millions of people in states from Florida in the southeast through Louisiana and Texas to Arizona, Nevada and California in the southwest.

Read more: 500 people evacuated due to forest fire on volcanic island in Spain

Canada is breaking a sad record this year: according to the authorities, there are already 100,000 square kilometers of forest and other landscapes burned (from Saturday) – an area larger than Hungary. Canada is reeling from the worst wildfire season in its history. Record heat and record drought not only caused wildfires, but also apocalyptic images. Not only was the east coast metropolis of the US, New York, temporarily engulfed by a dense yellowish veil of smoke moving south.

Very dry winter, very hot spring

Kirsten Thonicke in Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research puts the extent of Canadian wildfires in direct connection with the advancing climate crisis: “The winter in Canada was very dry, the spring very hot; the effects of climate change are intensifying in arctic regions, where it was very hot,” she explains. In some cases, over 30 degrees have been measured in cities like Toronto in the spring – 18 degrees warmer than normal.

“The reason for this is an area of ​​constant high pressure, which has brought warm, dry air into the region. With increasing climate change, these climate constellations are becoming more and more stable, so these situations last longer and longer,” Thonicke continues. In any case, megafires are an ecological catastrophe and jeopardize the ability of affected forests and tundra areas to recover. And the researchers aren’t just sounding the alarm here: In South Florida, water temperatures have risen to over 32 degrees – and it’s seriously endangering the survival of corals in the region.

Read more: 19-year-old firefighter dies fighting wildfires in Canada

Scientists agree on the connection between the most recent weather phenomena and the climate crisis. But as activists try to make their voices heard with increasingly polarizing actions, according to the United Nations (UN), politics and business are still not doing enough to reach the Paris target of 1.5 degrees. Many experts have long considered it out of reach.

Meanwhile, the damage caused by meteorological and climate catastrophes is increasing every year. According to official data, in 2022 it was US$ 176 billion in the USA alone. For comparison: the average value per year from 1980 to today is 58.5 billion.

In New York, an increasingly desperate UN Secretary-General appeared on camera. Antonio Guterres made the fight against the climate crisis its central concern. He continues to preach that all countries must significantly step up their efforts to achieve a 45% reduction in emissions by the end of the decade.

(Note that the following graph in the tweet shows temperatures in Fahrenheit and not Celsius)

And while states are still struggling to find compromises for the future and radical measures are out of reach, Guterres came to a sobering and shocking conclusion a few days ago: “The situation we are currently experiencing is proof that climate change is getting out of hand. control is.”