Experts predict a dramatic increase in the chance of major European heatwaves

THE chances of heatwaves in Europe have dramatically increased in the past decade as a result of warming temperatures, experts have claimed.

Extremely warm summers that would be expected to occur twice a century in the early 2000s are now likely to happen twice a decade, a new study from the Met Office suggests.

The chances of extreme heatwaves, such as the one in 2003 which led to tens of thousands of deaths, across Europe, have also increased tenfold, from a one-in-1,000year event to around once in a century.

By the 2040s, such extreme heatwaves could happen every other year if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increa se, the research published in the journal Nature Climate Change claimed.

The study is an update of research carried out in 2004 into the heatwave the previous year which suggested the likelihood of it happening had at least doubled as a result of human activity which affected the climate, such as burning fossil fuels.

Despite a slowdown in rising global temperatures since the late 1990s, the new study found summer temperatures in central and Mediterranean Europe affected by the 2003 heatwave had increased by 0.81C between the 1990s and the period 2004-2013.

The rises have increased the chances of summer heatwaves, defined as having temperatures of 1.6C above the long-term average, and extreme hot weather events such as the summer of 2003, which was 2.3C above the 1961-1990 average.