By: Anna Luo
Countries across Europe have been experiencing blistering weather in the past couple months due to their geological location and global warming.
According to The New York Times writer Henry Fountain, “Heat waves in Europe…are increasing in frequency and intensity at a faster rate than almost any other part of the planet, including the Western United States.” Temperatures are also averaging about 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they were in the late 19th century due to widespread use of heat trapping gas such as carbon dioxide.
Warming in the Arctic has also caused the difference in temperature between the Arctic and Equator to decrease. As a result, winds in the summertime have also decreased, prolonging weather systems.
The heatwave in England and Wales was due to a region of “upper level low-pressure air that has been stalled off the coast of Portugal for days,” according to The New York Times article by Henry Foundation. It’s known to atmospheric scientists as a “cutoff low” because “it was cut off from a river of westerly winds, the mid-latitude jet stream, that circles the planet at high altitudes.” Consequently, the low-pressure zone has drawn air into Europe from North Africa, moving the hot air northward.
Kai Kornhuber, a researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and part of Columbia University, published a study this month that revealed European heat waves have been becoming more frequent and intensive since the 1980’s. Researchers cited the cause of many European heat waves as the temporarily split of the jet stream, creating an area of weak winds and high-pressure air that allows for the buildup of extreme heat.
Efi Rousi, a senior scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany and the lead author of the study, has also published a paper that provided another reason for Europe’s climate. Using computer simulations, Rousi demonstrated that changes in atmosphere circulation and drier summers were caused by a weakening of ocean currents as the world warmed.
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/climate/europe-heat-wave-science.html