The Pacific Northwest region used to have such intense heat in the summer of 2021 that climate experts estimate analogous events occur once every 10,000 years.
Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, co-authored research with Isla Simpson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research to evaluate whether last year's exceptional and deadly heat dome may be the normal state of affairs, based on a report from Story Signal.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) study employed various climate models to establish that last year's exceptional heat catastrophe was such an extremely unlikely event, particularly in the era of climate change. Previous studies have shown that the catastrophic heat wave killed over 800 people and had a relatively close likelihood.
Even though conditions have become warmer, and even with the amount of warming we've observed in the region due to climate change, this occurrence kept coming up as an extremely rare event," associate professor McKinnon claimed.
Burning Humidity in the City
Throughout June 2021, a heat dome hung over the Pacific Northwest for many days, suffocating the region with temperature changes that occasionally reached 30 degrees above average.
That broke previous records by reaching 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon, 107 degrees Fahrenheit in Seattle, and 121 degrees Fahrenheit in Lytton, British Columbia. Those three values are new all-time highs according to statistics from Climatewire on June 29, 2021. Thousands of people perished due to the terrible heat, which might cause organ failure and worsen pre-existing diseases. Shortly after the heat wave, a wildfire ravaged Lytton.
Furthermore, just a few degrees of those scorching temps may be linked to climate change, as McKinnon notes that big temperature variations are not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest.
Based on the UCLA analysis, summertime maximum temperatures in the region have soared by about half a degree Fahrenheit every ten years since 1960.
Residents cool off at Sellwood Riverfront Park during a record-shattering heatwave in Portland, Oregon, on June 28, 2021.
Influencing the Intense Heat
In a statement about global climate change, NASA said that "industrial activities on which our current society relies have elevated atmospheric co2 levels by approximately 50% throughout 1750." Such rise is attributed to human activity since scientists have discovered a specific isotopic footprint in the atmosphere," the space agency explained.
"Almost everything we find is that this is an extraordinary circumstance in the climatic modifications," McKinnon expressed. Moreover, 30 degrees beyond usual for June "was more in the realm of poor luck than a trend we are expecting to see a lot more owing to climate change."
UCLA scientists also looked into if the high temperatures hint that climate models are experiencing difficulties projecting temperatures under climate change. She appended that scientists did not notice that climate tweak incidents are emerging quicker than experts' abilities to anticipate what could occur soon.
"That being said, I like to underscore that these determinations do not hint that climate change is not influencing extremes," McKinnon conveyed.
"Everything is getting hotter," she commented, "which causes heat surges to be more potent, more dangerous, and may stay stronger," McKinnon finished.
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