Northern Hemisphere sees devastating flooding, wildfires this summer: WMO

Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-17 01:25:53|Editor: huaxia

GENEVA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Heatwaves, destructive wildfires, and devastating flooding created by intense rainfalls have swept through the northern Hemisphere this summer, killing hundreds and destroying houses, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported on Friday.

The WMO said in a press release that fueled by "human-induced" climate change, weather incidents created by "unusual planetary wavy patterns" have brought havoc in Europe and North America.

Some countries in Western Europe received up to two months worth of rainfall in two days, with Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg strongly affected, the organization noted.

But according to the WMO, Europe was not only affected by rainfalls and flooding. In Scandinavia, and especially in Finland, lasting heatwaves were recorded, some of them unprecedented.

Finland, for example, experienced its warmest June on record and Kouvola Anjala in the south had seen 27 consecutive days with temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius, a situation not seen since 1961.

Meanwhile, similar heatwaves have created "extreme" wildfires in the western part of the United States and Canada, with regions such as California, Utah and Western Canada experiencing record-high temperatures.

"The record-breaking heatwave in parts of the U.S. and Canada at the end of June would have been virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused climate change," the WMO quoted a group of leading climate scientists as saying.

WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis told a regular press conference on Friday that experts have said that climate change was already increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, and many single events had been shown to have been made worse by global warming.

"As the atmosphere was getting warmer, it held more moisture which meant it would rain more during storms, increasing the risk of floods," she said.

Answering journalists' questions, Nullis said that there was a need to step up climate action and climate ambitions because the world was off track to reach the Paris Agreement targets. Enditem

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