deaths during the last week of June<\/a> to heat-related causes. \u201cHeat is one of the features of climate change that has already arrived,\u201d said Ruth Engel, a data scientist at the World Resources Institute. \u201cIt\u2019s not something we need to prepare for 25 years from now. It\u2019s already a deadly health issue now.\u201d Engel added that last year, more people died from extreme heat in Europe than from road crashes.<\/p>\nZachary Labe, a scientist at Climate Central, explained that scientists use early clues to link weather events to ocean heatwaves. For instance, the recent European heatwaves are likely tied to extra\u2011warm Mediterranean Sea temperatures. High humidity and temperatures in Florida\u2014prompting heavy air\u2011conditioner use\u2014are probably connected to a marine heatwave with water near 90\u00b0F off the state\u2019s Gulf coast. Unusually warm Pacific waters may have set up a weather pattern driving a potentially record\u2011breaking heatwave forecast for the central and northern U.S. in the coming week.<\/p>\n
Supercharging Storms and Rainfall<\/h3>\n
Hotter air makes the atmosphere \u201cspongier,\u201d holding about 7 percent more moisture for every 1\u00b0C of warming. This leads to longer dry spells and heavier, more dangerous deluges when rain finally falls. Scientists have linked climate change to heavy rainfall events such as the one that caused devastating floods last summer. Recently, Super Typhoon Bavi bore down on the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific\u2014the second super typhoon with extreme intensity to form there in a few months. Ocean warming also drives sea\u2011level rise through thermal expansion: as seas warm, they expand and push further up coastlines, amplifying storm damage.<\/p>\n
The Role of El Ni\u00f1o<\/h2>\nA \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d on the Horizon<\/h3>\n
A new El Ni\u00f1o event is cycling through the Pacific, bringing even more extreme weather. Unlike typical El Ni\u00f1os, this year\u2019s emerging pattern\u2014dubbed a \u201csuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d\u2014has an 81 percent chance of becoming one of the strongest in history, according to a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast. El Ni\u00f1o churns up some of the ocean\u2019s stored heat, bringing it to the surface where it interacts with the atmosphere and reshapes global weather.<\/p>\n
Matthew England, a professor at the University of New South Wales, noted that global average temperatures will likely remain elevated into early next year. \u201cThe first year of an El Ni\u00f1o cycle tends to be on the warm side, but the records are generally broken in the second year,\u201d he said. Alex Sen Gupta, also at the University of New South Wales, explained that El Ni\u00f1o years typically bring heavier rainfall to California and South America, and drier conditions to Australia and Southeast Asia. While El Ni\u00f1o tends to suppress hurricanes near the U.S., other regions see stronger cyclones with more rain.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence yet that climate change is making El Ni\u00f1os or La Ni\u00f1as stronger, but a hotter planet intensifies their effects. And some research suggests that the swings between strong El Ni\u00f1o and La Ni\u00f1a years are becoming more frequent, though scientists need more data to be certain.<\/p>\n
A Deadly Health Issue Now<\/h2>\n
The oceans are sending their heat ashore, and the consequences are already deadly. From record\u2011breaking land temperatures to supercharged storms and sea\u2011level rise, the heat stored in the oceans is reshaping weather patterns worldwide. As Ruth Engel put it, this is not a future problem\u2014it is here now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oceans absorb 90% of excess heat; marine heatwaves cover 40% of global ocean. Record heatwaves, super El Ni\u00f1o, and extreme storms linked to ocean warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}