Fatshimetrie, at the heart of world news, highlights the devastating consequences of extreme weather phenomena linked to climate change. Recently, Brazil was hit by deadly floods that led to the deaths of dozens of people and the destabilization of a city of around 4 million inhabitants. In India, during national elections, voters and politicians suffered from heatstroke as the thermometer climbed to 46.3 degrees Celsius.
In Asia, a relentless heatwave forced the closure of schools in the Philippines, caused deaths in Thailand, and set heat records in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives and Myanmar. Record temperatures, especially at night, when cooling is non-existent, have affected many regions of Africa. In Houston, flooding ravaged the city, and the United States as a whole just experienced the second highest number of tornadoes for the month of April.
In a world increasingly facing extreme climate variations, recent days and weeks have seemed to push these environmental extremes to the next level. Some climate scientists say they have trouble remembering such a planet-wide alignment of extreme weather events.
“Given that we have seen unprecedented global warming over the past 11 months, it is not surprising to see worsening climate extremes so early in the year,” says Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the Faculty of Medicine. of environment at the University of Michigan. “If this record warming continues, 2024 will likely be a record year for climate disasters and human suffering. »
As the planet warms, it is likely to face more extreme climate and weather events, including record heat and precipitation, scientists argue. Climate change is also altering weather patterns, blocking rainy and warm systems in some regions and altering the meander of the jet stream, says Alvaro Silva, a climate scientist at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The weakening of the El Niño phenomenon (natural warming of parts of the central Pacific which modifies weather conditions throughout the world), which followed three years of La Niña (its cold counterpart), adds to the more marked effects of human-caused climate change, says Silva.
Scientists also pointed to 13 consecutive months of record ocean temperatures as a potential factor in extreme weather events. All this comes as the world has just completed its eleventh consecutive month of record heat, according to the European climate service Copernicus reported last Wednesday.
April’s global average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius beat the previous record from 2016 by 0.14 degrees Celsius. Copernicus data goes back to 1950, while other climate monitoring agencies go back to 1850, but have not yet released their calculations for April.
Last month was 1.58 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial period of the late 19th century. In 2015, the world set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, but that goal mainly applies to maintaining that heat for a decade or more, not for a month .
While several factors play a role in this recent wave of extremes, climate change is the most important, argues Silva.
The problem is that the world has adapted and built cities designed for the temperatures and precipitation of the 20th century, but climate change is bringing more heat and torrential rains, says Andrew Dessler, a climatologist at A&M University in New York. Texas.
“We are leaving the climate of the 20th century and we simply cannot cope with these events,” Mr. Dessler said. “They are becoming slightly more extreme, but they are beyond our ability to deal with them. »
Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said extreme events are overlapping in more and more regions.
“Climate change stacks the dice against us in every part of the world,” Ms Hayhoe said. “This means not only an increase in the frequency and severity of many extreme weather events, but also an increased risk of multiple events. »
During the first five days of May, 70 countries or territories broke heat records, according to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who monitors temperatures around the world.
Nandyala and Kadapa in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh set an all-time record with a temperature of 46.3 degrees Celsius. Nitin Gadkari, a federal minister, fainted during an election campaign in the Indian state of western Maharashtra.
“Heatwaves in India are by far the deadliest type of extreme weather event. At the same time, extreme events are increasing the most in a warming world,” climate scientist Friederike Otto said in a statement earlier this week.
This week in Southeast Asia, “the May night was the hottest in history,” Mr. Herrera said on X (formerly Twitter). In some areas of Thailand, the temperature did not drop below 30.9 degrees Celsius.
In late April, parts of northern Thailand reached 44 degrees Celsius, while the town of Chauk, in Myanmar’s hottest region, recorded a record 48.2 degrees Celsius.
Many African countries are also facing oppressive heat. According to Mr. Herrera, the temperature reached 47.5 degrees Celsius in Kaye…