NEW DELHI: The heat wave in southern Europe and northern Africa in late April would have been impossible without the added effects of human-caused climate change, a new study last week revealed.

Last month, temperatures in many regions of Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria surged to all-time record highs as many spots registered readings in the high 90s and low 100s.

“This extreme would have been almost impossible in the past. We will see more intense and more frequent heat waves in the future as global warming continues,” study author Sjoukje Philip of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said.

The climate change worldwide has made heat waves more common, longer and hotter, according to scientists.

The analysis examined the average of the maximum temperature for three consecutive days in April across southern Spain and Portugal, most of Morocco and the northwest part of Algeria.

The researchers found climate change made the heat wave at least 100 times more likely, and that the temperatures were more than 6 degrees hotter than they would have experienced without climate change.

Using peer-reviewed methods, the scientists in the new finding looked at how human-induced climate change altered the likelihood and intensity of the Mediterranean heat wave.

Image courtesy – The Indian Express