![]() ![]() Heat-related emergency department visits during the Northwestern heat wave-United States, June 2021. Knowledge Update (BC Coroners Service, accessed August 2021) The New York Times (11 August 2021).Įxcess Deaths Associated with COVID-19 (CDC, 2021) Hidden toll of the Northwest heat wave: hundreds of extra deaths. Its likelihood is projected to increase rapidly with further global warming, possibly becoming a 10-yearly occurrence in a climate 2 ☌ warmer than the pre-industrial period, which may be reached by 2050. ![]() Since the 1950s, global warming has transformed the peak daily regional temperature anomaly of the event from virtually impossible to a presently estimated ~200-yearly occurrence. Its severity was amplified ~40% by nonlinear interactions between its drivers, probably driven in part by land–atmosphere feedbacks catalysed by long-term regional warming and soil drying. Here, we find that slow- and fast-moving components of the atmospheric circulation interacted, along with regional soil moisture deficiency, to trigger a 5-sigma heat event. ![]() Associated severe impacts highlight the need for understanding the physical drivers of the heatwave and relations to climate change, to improve the projection and prediction of future extreme heat risks. Heat conditions in North America in summer 2021 exceeded previous heatwaves by margins many would have considered impossible under current climate conditions.
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