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Human-induced climate change made recent extreme heat in the US southwest, Mexico and Central America around 35 times more likely, scientists say.
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group studied excess heat between May and early June, when the US heatwave was concentrated in southwest states including California, Nevada and Arizona.
Extreme temperatures in Mexico also claimed lives during the period.
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The scientists said that such a heatwave was now four times more likely than it was in 2000, driven by planet-warming emissions.
Such attribution studies take some time to complete, so it’s too soon for scientists to say how much of a role climate change is playing in the current heatwave stretching from the centre to the northeast of the US and into Canada.
Experts say many extreme weather events including heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change.
“The results of our study should be taken as another warning that our climate is heating to dangerous levels,” said Izidine Pinto, Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
The WWA study focused on a region including the US southwest and Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras which also saw dangerously high temperatures.
The scientists said that the hottest five-day stretch across the region in June was made about 1.4C warmer by climate change.