Extreme heat, violent thunderstorms, floods: In the summer of 2023, the weather is going crazy, and not just in Germany. A US researcher warns that this is just the beginning.
Munich/Columbia – This time it caught Tirol in Austria and South Tyrol in Italy. A violent storm including thunderstorms swept across the border-crossing Alpine region and caused considerable damage. Several weather stations recorded wind speeds of over 90 km/h during the storm in South Tyrol.
Climate change in Europe: severe storms in Tyrol, South Tyrol and southern Bavaria
According to state meteorologist Dieter Peterlin, more than 4,500 lightning bolts were also registered in the northern Italian region on Tuesday (July 18), “this is the second highest value since measurements began in 2010”. In some cases, entire roofs of houses were torn off. In Bruneck alone in the Puster Valley, which is popular with tourists, 27 roofs were damaged. In nearby Tyrol, the fire brigades had to be deployed more than 500 times across the country. And there were also storms in southern Bavaria on Tuesday, for example in the Bad Tölz district.
It is the next example of a true series of storms in Central Europe in spring and summer 2023, while in North America Canada in particular was hit by heavy continuous rain, severe flooding and wild storms in April and May. According to the well-known climate researcher Jams E. Hansen, it was all predictable. The scientist from the USA also predicted future “super storms” in an interview.
For context: Hansen, a climate researcher, was director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies from 1981 to 2013 and professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University. He became known in the 1980s as one of the first scientists to urgently warn of the dangers of global warming, which is already clearly being felt in Europe. In 1981 he published a widely acclaimed study in which he outlined the effects of the greenhouse effect. On June 23, 1988, Hansen also addressed the United States Senate and stated that there was a “99 percent probability” of global warming being caused by man-made greenhouse gases.
Climate change: US environmental researchers predict “super storms” and extreme heat
Today, the world is moving toward an overheated climate of a kind that hasn’t happened in the last million years because “we’re bloody fools,” the scientist told the Guardians. As a result of mass industrialization, the climate has already warmed by an average of around 1.2 degrees Celsius, which has recently led to extreme summer temperatures in many parts of the northern hemisphere, he reported and said: “There is still a lot more in the pipeline unless we reduce the amount of greenhouse gases.” We consciously approach the new reality. We knew they were coming.”
These super storms are a foretaste of my grandchildren’s storms. We consciously approach the new reality.
Hansen also sharply criticized political decision-makers and science. The record-breaking heatwaves that have swept through the US, Europe and China over the past few weeks have “increased the sense of disappointment that we scientists have not communicated more clearly and that we have not elected leaders capable of a smarter response.” That means we’re bloody fools.”
Extreme heat and storms: US climate researchers expect more “extreme events”
That’s not all: This year is likely to be the hottest ever measured worldwide, and in the summer there was already the hottest June ever measured, Hansen explained Guardians. “That doesn’t mean that the extreme heat in a particular location is going to happen again this year and increase every year,” he said, explaining, “Weather variations move things. But the global mean temperature will increase, including more extreme events.”
A scientific study of the Consequences of climate change shows possible scenarios. Global warming also has an impact on the human body: According to experts, it leads to that our brains are shrinking. (pm)
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