Heatwaves are getting hotter, longer, more frequent globally
It's happening globally, but not all regions are affected equally. Image via Pixabay. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent around the world, a new paper reports. A worldwide analysis of heatwave patterns on the regional level reveals that these have been increasing in length and frequency in the last 70 years. Cumulative heat — the total amount of heat in individual heatwaves and heatwave seasons — has also been increasing. This property signifies the intensity of the heatwave season and represents “the product of all seasonal heatwave days and average heatwave intensity.” Catching some (heat) waves “Not only have we seen more and longer heatwaves worldwide over the past 70 years, but this trend has markedly accelerated,” said lead author Dr. Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes in Australia. For the study, the researchers looked at heatwave trends over multi-decade intervals between 1950-2017 and found some very telling signs. The...
