American scientists have found that human-related climate change will lead to frequent periods of extreme heat in 2020 in California and the southwestern United States. This was announced in a press release on EurekAlert !.
The researchers used climate models as well as climate data collected from 1900 to 2010. This allowed them to predict the increase in air temperature in the summer months until the end of the 21st century. However, extreme heat was defined as a hot period lasting three days or more when temperatures reached record highs.
It turned out that global warming will become the main driver of heat waves in the Great Lakes region by 2030 and on the US plains by 2050-2070. At the same time, the mortality rate of people sensitive to high air temperatures will increase. The situation will be aggravated by the high population growth in these regions.
Earlier in 2017, an international team of scientists found that by the end of the 21st century, the number of victims of extreme weather conditions could grow from three to 150 thousand people annually.