By: Alex Chu
People around the world are getting hot from a heat wave that began on June 12th. Although there might not be a single reason to why this is happening, South Asia, America, and Europe are suffering from this heat wave.
In South Asia
India and Pakistan have been suffering from heat waves since March. India’s capital has had six heat waves. This has been extremely hard on people’s lives there. “Hundreds of millions of humanity’s most vulnerable live in South Asia, where rising temperatures make it more difficult to address poverty, food insecurity and health challenges.” Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar reported in their article “On Climate Change’s Front Lines, Hard Lives Grow Even Harder” in the New York Times.
Pakistan has seen similar temperatures. But the situation in Pakistan has been made worse by power cuts. Pakistan is suffering from a fuel shortage. That’s because Russia’s war on Ukraine has created a high demand for fuel worldwide.
In Europe
Wildfires in Spain have destroyed thousands of acres of land and forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes amid a punishing heat wave across Europe.
Currently, Spain, France, and Portugal are the countries most affected.
In The USA
The heat wave began in the West and Southwest. Places like Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado saw temperatures higher than 100ºF (38ºC).
The heat wave has now moved east, and states across the central US to the Atlantic coast are baking in extremely high temperatures. Southern states are being hit hard, but even states as far north as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan are also affected.
There are three reasons this heat wave is hitting central Texas particularly hard, said State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon: “low moisture in the soil, weather patterns bringing in dry air from urban Mexico and climate change.”
Governments in many large cities have set up “cooling centers” to give people a place to escape the high temperatures.
Did You Know?
The New York Times reports that 27 areas matched or beat their highest temperatures ever.