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- The countries across Europe are experiencing record-breaking heat waves.The heatwave has already caused flash floods and forest fires grounded planes and buckled train tracks and led to school closures and warnings over air quality.
- There is no universally accepted definition of a heatwave due to variations in climate conditions in different world regions.Typically though,they are defined by an unseasonably hot period usually five degrees or more above the average daily maximum that lasts at least three days.
- The experts have said that both humidity and low wind speeds can enhance a heatwave.The effects can be particularly extreme in large cities due to increased human activity and a mass of buildings,concrete and roads.
- In Europe,heat waves occurs across northern Europe when high atmospheric pressure draws up hot air from northern Africa,Portugal and Spain raising temperatures and increasing humidity.In this instance,the exceptionally hot air has come from the Sahara.
- Heatwaves are not uncommon but according to weather experts they are being amplified by a rise in global temperatures and are likely to become more frequent as one of the more predictable impacts of our warming climate.
- According to the World Meteorological Organization(WMO),highest recorded temperature in Europe is 48C which was measured in Athens in July 1977.But on average the 20 warmest years since records began have all been within the past 22 years.The years 2015-2018 make up the top four.