LONDON, July 8 — The suffocating heat wave that killed hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest last week would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, a study has found.
But if current greenhouse gas emissions continue, an event so extreme could start occurring every five to 10 years by the 2040s, they warned. The heat wave gripped parts of the United States and Canada for days at the end of June, smashing records in dozens of cities. Power lines melted in the heat. Roads buckled. Canada thrice broke its national temperature record, peaking on June 29 at 121 Fahrenheit — a full 8 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the previous record set in 1937.The death toll in Oregon alone has topped 100, while British Columbia saw hundreds more deaths than usual.
Either way, industry-driven climate change played a key, and considerable, role, according to the study. In recent years, scientific advances have allowed researchers to link specific extreme weather events to climate change.
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