While the most intense heatwave of the last few years is underway across southeastern Europe, with the highest temperatures hitting 45°C, these extreme weather patterns might be appearing more frequently by the end of the century.

That’s the suggestion from Freya Garry, Climate Scientist at the Met Office, who spoke to ELN about the role of climate change in fuelling these extreme weather patterns: “Some of the extreme heat events we are seeing are likely caused by climate change.

“We can tell this because our models show that the chance of events like the heat dome in North America happening in June without any of the oil and gas burning that humans have done over the last couple of centuries are one in tens of thousands, so really rare events.”

Dr Garry added: “Actually the chance of them happening has increased by thousands of times. So, if we don’t act fast to reduce our future greenhouse emissions, then we might be seeing these extreme heat dome patterns appearing every other year by the end of the century.”

Listen to the podcast to find out more…