A severe heatwave is ongoing in Europe. Temperature records broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

On 11 July 2023, the Land Surface Temperature (LST) in some areas of Extremadura (Spain) exceeded 60°C, as highlighted in this data visualisation derived from measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) instrument. The ongoing heatwave in Spain this week is resulting in a total of 13 autonomous communities, being at extreme risk (red alert), significant risk (orange alert), and risk (yellow alert) due to maximum temperatures that, in some cases, will exceed 40°C and reach a maximum of 43°C.

For reference, “in areas where vegetation is dense, the land surface temperature never rises above 35°C. The hottest land surface temperatures on Earth are in plant-free desert landscapes.”

  • xuxebiko
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    231 year ago

    Northern India saw intense heatwaves just a few weeks back and now is being drowned. Indians are used to heatwaves and floods, but this year the intensity and scale both are frightening.

    • @cynar
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      391 year ago

      This was the reason it changed from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change”. More energy is being dumped into the weather system. This makes everything more extreme. The heating is almost incidental to it. The extra energy is the killer.

    • Quokka
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      1 year ago

      That’s climate change to a tee, it’s more the usual pattern but taken to the extreme, and it’s only going to get worse each year.

      • Nepenthe
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        1 year ago

        Yyyyep. We’ve never been prepared for our normal weather here for whatever reason, and I simply can’t wait for winters to worsen too, now that it’s very visibly tipped over the edge. /s

        I’d rather die in heat than cold, which insinuates it’s definitely going to be the latter.