Scientists say temperatures are getting 'hotter faster' than their tools can calculate



London (CNN) The recent hot wave in the UK was the Great British Bake Off that nobody wanted, and a new research reveals that human-caused climate change increased its likelihood of occurring by at least 10 times.

However, the World Weather Attribution project, which conducted the analysis, also noted that its results are probably an underestimate, cautioning that the tools at scientists' disposal have limitations and are leading to a blind spot regarding the extent to which humans are contributing to heat waves.

Globally, heat waves are getting longer and more frequent, and experts believe that human-caused climate change is a factor in all of them.

How much is the harder question to answer.

Scientists utilize a mix of measurements and climate models, or simulations, to estimate the impact of humans on high heat. The observed high heat in western Europe increased far more than predicted by the models, despite the fact that they are frequently cautious in their conclusions.

In a news statement, WWA stated that while models predict that greenhouse gas emissions boosted temperatures in this heatwave by 2 °C, historical meteorological data shows that the heatwave would have been 4 °C milder in a world without human activity-related warming. "This shows that the true effect of human-caused climate change on high temperatures in the UK and other parts of Western Europe is being underestimated by models. It also suggests that the analysis's findings are conservative and that climate change has probably increased the event's frequency by a factor more than the study's calculated value of 10."

For the first time ever on July 19, peak temperatures in the UK reached above 40 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit), reaching 40.3C in the English town of Coningsby. For the first time ever, the British government issued a red level excessive heat warning for a number of locations in England, including London.

Infrastructure across the nation collapsed as temperatures rose. In what the agency described as its busiest days since World War II, train lines twisted out of shape, an airport runway melted, and London's fire department declared a "major incident" when a number of fires broke out.

Some schools were closed, people were urged to work from home, and hospitals and emergency services were overburdened.

Leading the WWA project is Friederike Otto from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London. "In Europe and other parts of the world we are seeing more and more record-breaking heatwaves causing extreme temperatures that have become hotter faster than in most climate models," she said. The results are alarming because they indicate that, if carbon emissions are not substantially reduced, the effects of climate change on Europe's already lethal excessive heat might be far worse than previously imagined.

The effects of the climate problem will intensify with every tenth of a degree of global warming. In order to prevent tipping points, when some ecosystems that the Earth depends on for its biological balance may find it difficult to recover, people must work to reduce global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius on average. The globe has already warmed by around 1.2 degrees Celsius on average.

A heat wave as strong as the one that hit the UK last week is "still unusual in today's climate," according to the experts, with a 1% chance of it occurring annually. The results of the computer modeling, according to weather records once again, are conservative, and comparable intense heat episodes are probably going to happen more frequently as well.

Dr. Radhika Khosla of the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment responded to the release of the revised WWA research by praising the scientists' quick work.

"While we are all still cognizant of the significant disruptions caused by last week's high heat, the WWA team is able to produce evidence-based results quickly using proven, peer-reviewed methodologies. This study is the most recent in a line that all reveal the same conclusion: climate change increases the likelihood and severity of heatwaves "said Khosla.

"The current amount of heat in the UK is hazardous because it puts stress on our bodies, as well as our infrastructure, economy, food, and educational institutions. Numerous properties in the UK become uninhabitable under excessive heat, as the report notes. As previously unheard-of temperatures become the norm, adapting to them, enhancing heat tolerance using sustainable methods, and safeguarding people are essential priorities."

The UK's Met Office's Peter Stott, a science fellow in climate attribution, said that dealing with such extremes won't be the nation's only experience.

According to Stott, "temperatures exceeding 40C will occur again, probably within the next few years and most definitely within the next several decades." "We can lower the probability of such extremes becoming more common only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."