Scorching weather conditions are forecast in the coming months for North America, Europe and Asia, according to a Business Times report citing a Bloomberg article quoting government forecasts and climate and weather experts.
There is a chance that the season could exceed global high-temperature records, Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted as saying.
Scorching conditions could impact power grids and crops and send energy prices soaring across three continents, the 2 June report said.
The human and economic consequences could be dire, with extreme heat expected to lead to losses of about US$200bn/year in the USA by 2030, a number that will more than double by 2050, according to one estimate.
All three northern continents faced sweltering temperatures fuelled by climate change, particularly western and central USA and Canada, as well as western and northern Europe, Swain said.
As a warmer atmosphere held more moisture, these regions would also see areas of intense rain and flooding, he added.
“I’d expect to see further instances of extreme to record-shattering downpours and flood events in regions prone to heavy precipitation during the warm season,” Swain said.
Drought conditions have been intensifying in areas of the USA where soyabeans, corn and wheat are grown, according to the report.
In addition, if the parched conditions continued, water levels on the Mississippi River could drop, impacting barge transportation used to ship crops across the country.
Across Europe, little rainfall and early drying has created the conditions for intense heat waves, droughts and dangerous wildfires, according to commercial meteorologists and government forecasters.
June temperatures in China, except for some far northern areas, are also expected to be high, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
Drought in the northern part of the country had hit the wheat crop during a key growth period, threatening output of a staple food grain at a time when Beijing remained involved in a trade war with the USA, the report said.
Across the Northern Hemisphere, the extreme heat was due to how much warmer the Earth was compared with a few decades ago, Swain said. Since 1959, Europe in particular - but parts of the Pacific Northwest, northeastern Canada, Mexico, Africa and the Middle East as well - seen a marked increase in summer heat.
“An increase in heat extremes is the most obvious symptom of climate change,” Karen McKinnon, a professor who studies the statistics behind climate change at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was quoted as saying.
“Even seemingly small changes in temperatures of a few degrees can make summers feel substantially more extreme.”
