As reported by Climate Central, a recent land temperature analysis covering the years 1979 – 2012 indicates that instances of extreme heat are becoming more common worldwide:
“This study shows that the frequency of hot extremes over land has continued to increase in the last 15 years, despite an apparent stabilization of the global mean temperature,” study lead author and ETH Zurich researcher Sonia Seneviratne said in an email.
To perform the analysis, two datasets were used to essentially divvy the globe’s land into grids and then look at shifts in the number of areas experiencing 30 days of extreme heat per year compared to the 1979-2010 average. The study defined extreme heat as daily temperatures in the top 10 percent for a given area.
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Droughts could become more common as a consequence of the increase in periods of extreme heat around the world.
(Image credit)In spring, summer, and fall, most parts of the globe have seen extreme temperatures rise even more. Parts of Europe, South America, and the eastern U.S. have seen the most consistent rise across all three seasons. Extreme high temperatures have increased by up to 2.7°F per decade in those areas.
The article also indicates that this trend shows no signs of slowing down:
Though this study only includes data through 2012, record heat has been a recurring theme throughout the globe since then. High temperature records were set in Alaska and Siberia in the summer of 2013. And 2014 began with heat waves in Australia, Argentina and Brazil, while Western Europe has seen record or near-record warmth.
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