Extreme climate a sign of warming future: Study

NEW DELHI: Multiple regions across the world simultaneously experiencing heat extremes could become an “emerging feature” of a warmer planet, according to a new study.

The research that reviewed the weather and climate of 2023 also said many extreme events experienced last year were consistent with predictions about a warmer world.

Putting the events of the warmest year on record in perspective, researchers said in a warmer future, more events involving record-breaking hot temperatures and cyclones exacerbating rainfall extremes were in order. Change in seasonality of extreme events was another trend the researchers observed.

“We are seeing extremes appearing in seasons in which they are usually less likely. Heatwaves, for example, appeared in spring 2023 in southwestern Europe, Brazil, Morocco and South Africa,” said Robin Clark of the Met Office in the UK, a co-author of the study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science.

Many regions of North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia experienced record-breaking hot extremes last July, which, the researchers said, could become an “emerging feature” of a warmer planet. They also found that intense cyclones exacerbated rainfall extremes such as the Libya flooding in September and the North China flooding in July 2023.

“Many of 2023’s events are consistent with projected future changes in a warmer world, showing the challenges that are to come, while some were a surprise, suggesting there is still more to learn about what’s potentially around the corner,” added lead author of the paper, Wenxia Zhang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Droughts in California and the Horn of Africa transitioned into floods in 2023, and more such events are projected to occur in the coming decades. The compounding effects of droughtto-flood events can be more severe compared to when floods and droughts occur separately, they said.

The researchers also found that wildfires, such as those that occurred in Hawaii and Canada last year, are causing widespread damage, along with threatening emissions targets aimed at limiting global warming.