{"id":110156,"date":"2026-06-26T15:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/europes-heatwave-virtually-impossible-without-climate-change-scientists-say-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:31:39","slug":"europes-heatwave-virtually-impossible-without-climate-change-scientists-say-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/europes-heatwave-virtually-impossible-without-climate-change-scientists-say-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe’s heatwave ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, scientists say | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women run through a water spray from a public outdoor sprinkler system to alleviate high temperatures at Rudolfplatz square, amid a heatwave in Cologne, Germany, June 25, 2026. Photo: Reuters <\/p>\n

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The record-breaking heatwave engulfing Western Europe would have been “virtually \u200cimpossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s soaring night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been just two decades ago, scientists said on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Over the region studied, this heatwave is the most severe ever recorded,” the \u200bWorld Weather Attribution group of climate scientists said in an analysis.<\/p>\n

Britain recorded a record-high temperature for \u200bJune on Thursday, amid the\u00a0deadly heatwave<\/a>\u00a0that has killed dozens, disrupted power supplies and \u2060shut schools and cultural landmarks.<\/p>\n

Read<\/strong>:\u00a0Europe swelters under deadly ‘Omega’ heatwave, more records expected<\/a><\/p>\n

Global warming has worsened Europe’s heatwaves in just a few decades, the WWA \u200banalysis found. A similar heatwave in June 1976 would have been around 3.5 degrees Celsius cooler than this \u200bone, WWA said.<\/p>\n

Of more than 800 European cities analysed, 45% have recorded, or are forecast to record, their highest heat stress levels for late June, the research found. Heat stress occurs when the body cannot cool itself through sweating.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse gas emissions drive warming <\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientists have confirmed through years of studies that human-caused global warming is making heatwaves both more likely \u200band intense. Greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning coal, oil and gas, have increased the planet’s average temperature to around 1.4 \u200cC \u2060above pre-industrial times in the 19th century, according to the World Meteorological Organization.<\/p>\n

“We are not doing enough to slow the rate of global warming at the moment. And so as that rate of warming continues … we should expect to see record temperatures being exceeded more and more frequently,” said Clair Barnes, a research associate \u200bin extreme weather at Imperial \u200bCollege London, who co-authored \u2060the WWA analysis.<\/p>\n

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent.<\/p>\n

The WWA analysis said the health impacts of this heatwave are just beginning to emerge, and pointed to a scientific \u200bstudy which found more than 60,000 people died from heat-related causes amid a\u00a0series \u200bof heatwaves in \u2060the summer of 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Health risks in heatwaves are exacerbated by extreme night-time temperatures, which hamper the body’s ability to recover from daytime stress. In parts of France, overnight temperatures have stayed above 20 C for more than a \u2060week \u2014 \u200ba temperature threshold known as a “tropical night” \u2014 with some nights recording \u200bminimum temperatures of nearly 30 C.<\/p>\n

The El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which has formed in the tropical Pacific and tends to increase global temperatures, \u200bdid not contribute to Europe’s severe heat, WWA said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women run through a water spray from a public outdoor sprinkler system to alleviate high temperatures at Rudolfplatz square, amid a heatwave in Cologne, Germany, June 25, 2026. Photo: Reuters The record-breaking heatwave engulfing Western Europe would have been “virtually \u200cimpossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s soaring night-time temperatures 100 times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/climate111782479910-0\/climate111782479910-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t