Climate change drives, hotter more frequent heat waves
As California awakens to the worsening risk of extreme climate events, researchers are shedding new light on last year’s anomalous and extreme Pacific Northwest heat wave. One study published this week said such heat waves could become 20 times more likely to occur if current carbon emissions continue unabated. … The nine-day event in late June and early July 2021 seared parts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, where Canada saw its highest temperature on record, 121.3 degrees. The heat wave claimed hundreds of lives, sparked several devastating wildfires and killed an estimated 1 billion sea creatures. … In California and other parts of the western United States, increasing heat, drought and aridification are contributing to long-term drying of soils, which means there’s less water to be evaporated into the air.