There are alternative ways of lowering temperatures inside buildings, she says: “You can replace the roof with a more reflective roof, and it will reduce the local urban heat island temperature.” In a 2019 study, she and a colleague estimated that this could reduce deaths in an urban heat island area during a heat wave by 25 percent.Įven as anthropogenic climate change causes heat waves to become more frequent, longer-lasting, and more intense, Otto says, some countries still lack widespread awareness of extreme heat events. Heaviside says this is sometimes exacerbated by air-conditioning systems, which throw heat out into the atmosphere while keeping interior spaces cool. Because of the urban heat island effect, heat waves can be multiple degrees Celsius warmer in cities than in surrounding areas. It may be time to rethink architecture in places that were less accustomed to hot weather in the past, suggests Clare Heaviside, a research fellow at University College London’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. If it’s not possible to stay sufficiently cool at home, you might be able to access air conditioning in a public building such as a library. People should ensure they stay hydrated and avoid going out during the hottest part of the day, she advises. But he adds that he hopes people are prepared for the worst, just in case: “With these rising sea levels, I just think the surge is going to be insane if one of these systems comes up the East Coast.” If a large number of hurricanes do show up in the Atlantic this year, no one knows how likely they are to actually make landfall, says Pastelok. Ultimately, a potent mix of climate change’s effects and natural variability are hammering some parts of the world right now. It could exacerbate drought in the southwestern US, for example. La Niña has all kinds of effects on weather, he notes, not just on hurricanes. “There’s a big discussion as to whether this is some natural variability.” This is actually the opposite of what most climate models say,” says Klotzbach. “Overall, we’re tending to see more frequent La Niña events, and they’re tending to be stronger. If that happens it would only be the third such long-lasting La Niña since 1950. What’s unusual is that the current La Niña event has lasted for two winters now and may even continue into 2023. Episodes of La Niña typically occur every two to seven years and usually last for between nine and 12 months. La Niña also reduces wind shear in the Atlantic, meaning that cyclones have a greater chance of building up in the atmosphere and becoming strong enough to be classed as hurricanes. A major culprit here is La Niña, a cyclical natural weather phenomenon that results in cooler ocean temperatures in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and warmer temperatures in the Atlantic.
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