Here we go again, another Western European heat wave.
Except this one is even more intense than the one back in June and early July — an event that research tentatively suggests was made at least five times more likely to occur by human-caused climate change.
Now, with another “heat dome” strengthening over the continent, high temperature records have tumbled once again. In fact, Germany may have just seen the highest temperature ever recorded in the country: 104.9 degrees F.
Even more brutal heat is on the way. The forecast for Paris for Thursday, July 25th is for a high temperature of 105 F. If the mercury climbs that high, it would break the previous record of 104.7 F set more than 70 years ago.
I’ll get into the connections between climate change and heat waves in a just a bit. But first, the proximate cause of this one is a big, intense area of high pressure — that heat dome — with the jet stream flowing around it in a pattern called an “omega block.”
