{"id":48894,"date":"2026-06-27T13:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48894"},"modified":"2026-06-27T13:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:43:14","slug":"europes-severe-june-heatwave-virtually-impossible-50-years-ago-climate-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/europes-severe-june-heatwave-virtually-impossible-50-years-ago-climate-scientists-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s severe June heatwave \u2018virtually impossible\u2019 50 years ago, climate scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Europe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Europe\u2019s record heatwave in the month of June would have been &#8220;virtually impossible&#8221; 50 years ago, scientists said Friday, proof that human-caused climate change is &#8220;unequivocally&#8221; responsible for the intensity of the latest scorcher. Half-a-century ago, a similar heatwave would have been 3.5\u00b0C cooler, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Issued on:\u00a026\/06\/2026 &#8211; Modified:\u00a026\/06\/2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By:  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/author\/france-24\/\">FRANCE 24<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.france24.com\/media\/display\/27f4f72e-7131-11f1-aa32-005056a97e36\/w:1024\/p:16x9\/AP26175601453592.jpg\" alt=\"A person cools off at Trocadero fountain near the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave in Paris, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A man cools off at Trocadero fountain near the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave in Paris, June 24, 2026. \u00a9 Christophe Ena, AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Human-caused&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/climate-change\/\">climate change<\/a>&nbsp;is &#8220;unequivocally&#8221; responsible for the intensity of a record-breaking&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/heatwave\/\">heatwave<\/a>&nbsp;scorching&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/europe\/\">Europe<\/a>, scientists said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would have been &#8220;virtually impossible&#8221; for such exceptional temperatures to occur in June fifty years ago, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldweatherattribution.org\/fossil-fuel-emissions-have-rapidly-worsened-european-heatwaves-in-just-a-few-decades\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">World Weather Attribution<\/a>&nbsp;group of scientists said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A similar heatwave would have been 3.5\u00b0C cooler during the day in June 1976, concluded the study by scientists from Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the world is hotter today and &#8220;the chance of a heatwave like this has changed immensely&#8221;, said the study&#8217;s lead author Theodore Keeping from Imperial College London.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This event would not have been possible in June without climate change,&#8221; Keeping told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The planet has warmed about 1.4\u00b0C above pre-industrial times, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#039;Big polluting companies like Total have climate obligations under French law&#039; \u2022 FRANCE 24 English\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2to2SOqk_ac?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists agree this is making extreme weather events like heatwaves more frequent and intense, and that limiting warming is vital to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Europe is the world&#8217;s fastest-warming continent and tens of millions of people have sweltered this week in temperatures that broke records in some countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/france\/20260625-like-working-in-a-kettle-france-s-overcrowded-prisons-swelter-under-historic-heatwave\">\u2018Like working in a kettle\u2019: France\u2019s overcrowded prisons swelter under historic heatwave<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The weather pattern itself is not particularly unusual, but the temperatures are&nbsp;\u2013 or at least they used to be, without human-induced climate change,&#8221; Friederike Otto, the co-founder of World Weather Attribution from Imperial College London, told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Unpleasant and dangerous&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As the heatwave is still unfolding, scientists used observed and forecast temperatures to compare this heatwave against how it might have behaved in the cooler climates of 2003 and 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even compared to 2003&nbsp;\u2013 when tens of thousands of people died in a major European heatwave&nbsp;\u2013 the current episode was notably extreme, the authors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A similar heatwave in June 2003 would have been about 2\u00b0C cooler, the study said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In 2003&#8230; daytime heat like this would still have been very rare&#8221;, while overnight temperatures would have been more than a hundred times less likely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Our analysis here shows that intense heat is increasing rapidly even in living memory, with such events tens to hundreds of times more likely since only 2003 and virtually impossible just 50 years ago,&#8221; said the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Climate change is unequivocally to blame.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch more<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/power-outages-and-melting-roads-heatwave-strains-french-infrastructure\">Power outages and melting roads: Heatwave strains French infrastructure<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The El Nino weather pattern&nbsp;\u2013 a natural warming climate phase&nbsp;\u2013 had &#8220;no role in driving the heat&#8221;, the authors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Otto also singled out the threat of &#8220;heat stress&#8221; posed by the combination of high temperatures and humidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heat stress occurs when the body&#8217;s natural cooling systems are overwhelmed, causing symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the nearly 850 cities in Europe analysed in the study, some 45 percent had broken&nbsp;\u2013 or were expected to break&nbsp;\u2013 their all-time heat stress records in June, the study said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This made the heatwave &#8220;particularly unpleasant and dangerous&#8221;, Otto said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode is the second of the year for Europe after an early-season heatwave in May brought temperatures more typical of high summer to central and western parts of the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>World Weather Attribution said the rapid phase out of fossil fuels was &#8220;critical if we are to avoid even higher temperatures and their consequences in the future&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Europe Europe\u2019s record heatwave in the month of June would have been &#8220;virtually impossible&#8221; 50 years ago, scientists said Friday, proof that human-caused climate change is &#8220;unequivocally&#8221; responsible for the intensity of the latest scorcher. Half-a-century ago, a similar heatwave would have been 3.5\u00b0C cooler, the study found. Issued on:\u00a026\/06\/2026&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/europes-severe-june-heatwave-virtually-impossible-50-years-ago-climate-scientists-say\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2039,1880],"tags":[2114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48895,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48894\/revisions\/48895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}