How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods. BBC News 17 June 2024 Mark Poynting and Esme Stallard
1. More extreme rain.....For every 1C rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. This can result in more droplets and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area. Globally, heavy rainfall events have become more frequent and intense over most land regions due to human activity, according to the UN's climate body, the IPCC. It says this pattern will continue with further warming. Scientists assess whether individual extreme weather events can be attributed to climate change by considering both natural and human causes. In the case of the intense rainfall which fell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman in April 2024, it was difficult to conclude exactly how much of a role climate change played. Heavy rain in this region is rare, which offers researchers fewer historical comparisons. But these types of events have become 10-40% heavier, and climate change is the most likely explanation, according to the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.In May 2024, southern Brazil experienced heavy rainswhich lead to widespread flooding, displacing about 150,000 people. The Rio Grande do Sul region that was hit is particularly vulnerable to heavy rains, as it is the meeting point of tropical and polar air masses.But climate expert Francisco Eliseu Aquino told the AFP news agency that "these interactions [have] intensified with climate change". Scientists believe the heavy rainfall which caused deadly flooding in northern Libya in Sep tember 2023 was made up to 50 times more likely by climate change. Years of political instability in the regionalso hampered preparations for such events.
2. Hotter, longer heatwaves......Even a small increase in average temperatures makes a big difference to heat extremes. As the range of daily temperatures shifts to warmer levels, hotter days are more likely and more intense. In April 2024, temperatures in Mali hit 48.5C during an extreme heatwave across the Sahel region of Africa, which was linked to increased hospitalisations and deaths.This level of heat would not have been possible without human-caused climate change, the WWA found, and will become more common as the world continues to warm. In the UK, temperatures topped 40C for the first time on record in July 2022, causing extensive disruption. This would have been extremely unlikely without climate change, the WWA says. Heatwaves are also becoming longer in many places, including the UK.This can happen as a result of heat domes, which are areas of high pressure where hot air is pushed down and trapped, causing temperatures to soar over large areas.....there's much more- read on
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58073295
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58073295