By: Summer Chu

In the past few months, Europe has experienced some of the worst heat waves ever seen in the area. During May, France received some of the hottest temperatures the country had ever felt that month, with record-breaking highs in some of its cities. The next month, heat rolled through France once more, as well as Spain, Italy, and eastern Europe even before the summer began.

Temperatures are still climbing across the continent, causing more and more people to worry about what might happen. Wildfires and droughts are already popping up in dry regions and still hotter days are expected to arrive with two months of summer still coming in the future.

Scientists say that Heat waves in Europe are getting much worse faster than in almost any other part of the planet, including the Western United States.

Scientists attribute some of the blame for these heatwaves to global warming. This is because all temperatures are, on average, about 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they were in the late 19th century before emissions of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases for the atmosphere were so commonly released.

Another possible reason for these latest heatwaves is the circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean, which makes Europe seem like the exact place these heatwaves would occur as this continent is the exact place where the jet stream has split temporarily. That is the new theory scientists believe is the reason why these heat waves have been happening.

Although, the explanation for each heatwave is a little different, as each differs from the others. For example, the heatwaves that are currently scorching England and Wales are caused by an area of top-level low-pressure air that is being blocked off the coast of Portugal. To atmospheric scientists, this is known as a “cutoff low” because it was cut off by westerly winds, a type of jet stream that circulates the planet.