Extreme heat hits a London airport 0:42
(CNN) --
Heat waves on several continents have broken records, threatened public health and reeled infrastructure, in what scientists say are signs of the climate crisis' impact on time from day to day. day.
Americans are used to turning on their air conditioners whenever temperatures approach 80 degrees.
But in the UK, this week's record heat has brought life to a standstill like a pandemic.
Temperatures in the UK topped 40C for the first time on Tuesday, making it the country's hottest day.
In the US, a third of the population was under a heat weather advisory on Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures expected to rise above 43C in the Great Plains states.
The American West just experienced an aspect of the climate crisis that scientists have warned about for years.
If we look at the cause of these heat extremes in the US and Europe, there are different systems in play.
In Europe, a strong high pressure ridge has allowed temperatures to rise over the continent in recent days.
On Tuesday, an area of low pressure moved off the coast, helping to funnel extreme heat north toward the UK.
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In the United States, a strong dome of high pressure has settled over the southern Plains and the Mississippi Valley.
Instead of channeling heat from the south, it is steadily building up as the sun heats through cloudless skies.
The connection between these heat waves is the influence of greenhouse gas emissions and the base temperature of the planet, which is getting hotter and hotter.
UK Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher was incredulous in making a video statement about the shocking temperatures the country experienced on Tuesday, noting that they would have been "virtually impossible" in the UK in a "climate". Without modifications".
"But climate change driven by greenhouse gases has made these temperatures possible, and indeed we are facing that possibility now," he said, adding that if the world continues to emit greenhouse gases at the current level, it is likely that heat waves of this type there every three years.
Pollution levels in Europe worry 0:49
UK unprepared for heat waves
Forty degrees Celsius is not that hot for someone sitting in the central United States, Australia, the Middle East, or northern India.
But in the UK, it forced people to work from home and students to study remotely.
Authorities told people not to take trains as they become dangerous on hot tracks that swell and bend in the heat.
In other words, don't leave the house.
But in the UK, more prone to cold than heat, houses are also designed to keep you warm.
Ventilators are running low across the country, but they can't do much.
How to stay cool without air conditioning
The weather has got Britons so hot that heat mismanagement has become the latest criticism leveled at the nation's outgoing Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who this week has been held up as yet another example of the fallen leader's failures. misfortune.
"The all-time UK temperature record has not only been broken, it has been completely erased," said Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading.
"The 39°C mark will no longer exist as a UK temperature record, because we just topped it to 40°C in one sweaty jump."
The UK is woefully unprepared for the impacts of the climate crisis.
It is difficult for you to manage floods when they occur.
With the heat, the nation bends.
So many fires broke out in London on Tuesday that city firefighters declared a "major incident" and were overwhelmed.
Four people have drowned while people went to beaches, rivers and lakes to try to cool off.
Even a runway at an airport on the outskirts of London had to be closed as it was melting in the strong heat.
In southern Europe, a region more accustomed to extreme heat, at least 1,100 people have lost their lives in the latest heat wave, and French firefighters are overwhelmed by flames tearing through forests.
Twenty-one European countries are under heat alert.
Bushfires rage across France and Spain amid heatwave, while the UK faces its hottest day yet
What is happening in the United States?
Americans may be more used to the heat, but heat waves are getting longer and more frequent there too, which means more time indoors, or wherever the air conditioning is.
As many as 100 million Americans, nearly a third of the nation, were under heat advisories on Tuesday.
The watches stretch from the southern plains to the Mississippi and Tennessee river valleys, and there are scattered watches across the Southwest.
Heat advisories have already been issued in the Northeast with a wind chill of 37.8°C for Wednesday.
The most dangerous heat is forecast in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, with excessive heat advisories for Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Little Rock.
Temperatures are expected to soar to 43°C in the coming days.
Scientists studying the role of the climate crisis in extreme weather events now say that nearly all of the world's heat waves are influenced by man-made burning of fossil fuels.
Friederike Otto, of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, said it is up to the world to reach net zero, where humans emit as few greenhouse gases as possible and "offset" the rest, to prevent heat waves from being even worse, "deadly and disruptive".
"We have the power to make ourselves less vulnerable and redesign our cities, homes, schools and hospitals and educate ourselves on how to stay safe," Otto told CNN.
"The 40C in the UK is not an act of God, but is largely due to our past and present burning of fossil fuels."
In China, the annual "sanfu," which typically lasts for three 10-day runs in July and August when temperatures and humidity peak, is now forecast for an "extended period" of 40 days, the weather forecaster said. state, according to Reuters.
The forecast warns of scorching heatwaves this week, despite seasonal rains, with temperatures likely to rise as high as 42C in the south from Wednesday.
The heat records that have been broken in recent days
In central London on Tuesday, a student named Asser who braved the heat told CNN the world wasn't doing enough to combat heat waves.
"In fact, the world is not doing anything. The world is burning and we are not doing anything about it. We just consume, the industry works and nobody does anything for the climate," he said.
"There are heat waves in Europe, London and the United States, everywhere - you can see it, it's obvious. There are floods and wildfires and all that."
-- CNN's Sana Noor Haq, Angela Fritz, Brandon Miller and Nada Bashir contributed to this report.
UK heat wave
