European Heat Waves Twice As Long - Study

Tens of thousands of people died during the 2003 and 2006 heat waves in Europe.  Unfortunately, the summer heat might not be cooling down anytime soon.

A study led by climatologist P. M. Della-Marta was published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres (Doubled length of western European summer heat waves since 1880 (2007), J. Geophy. Res. 112: doi:10.1029/2007JD008510).  It demonstrate that air temperatures over central western Europe have increased by 1.2 degrees Celsius from 1880 to 2005 - a result which was statistically significant.


The researchers took temperature measurements from 54 stations over western Europe, and applied some rather complex statistical analyses (my eyes crossed the first time I read the paper) for data over the past 126 years.  All the data were meticulously piled through, ensuring erroneous information was not included in their analysis (for example, a maximum temperature that was lower than the minimum).

"We show that over the last 126 years shorter lived but more intense heat waves have doubled in length." noted the authors, "It remains a challenge for the meteorological community to understand more about these extreme events and for national health services to develop strategies to mitigate the effects of this increasing threat on human health."