Mercari says Italy’s current heatwave is “very unusual” because of its length. The heat wave is expected to last for about two weeks. Research published in May Until the late 1990s, they estimated that the average heatwave in Europe lasted less than a week, but the duration has increased significantly since then due to global warming.
The sweltering conditions in the Mediterranean are consistent with extreme heat events elsewhere in the world, such as in the southern United States. Can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit part of Arizona. In addition, heat waves in southern Europe linked to one It currently affects Morocco and Algeria in North Africa. Countries are feeling the effects of the same high pressure.
Heatwaves are deadly, but meteorologists still disagree about whether they should be named, and if so, whether they should be particularly emotive, mythical or colorful. I have not.
But one person unfazed by Cerberus’ choice is Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
“I think they should have insisted on that,” she jokingly referred to the Italian Meteorological Association’s denial. But she also makes a serious point. People still underestimate the threat that heatwaves pose. As Otto told WIRED last year, Before the heatwaves that claimed so many lives in Europe, these weather events are often the deadliest, even when compared to large storms.
“Cerberus…Hell’s Dog, right?”
Others are less certain. Hannah Croke of the University of Reading agrees that heat waves are ‘silent killers’ and that people often don’t take heat waves as seriously as they should. But she doesn’t want to make public noise about the weather phenomenon. On social media, it’s easy to find comments from people criticizing the use of such a hideous name.
“Dangerous monsters will soon be gone,” Croke said, arguing that people could become desensitized to this approach. “In the long run, it’s not ideal.” Simpler names, like those used for storms, may help raise awareness of the weather phenomenon and signal the need for protective measures. there is, she added.
“We think heatwaves need branding and identity,” said Kathy Bowman-McLeod, director of Alstrok, noting that storms and floods are much more visually dramatic than extreme heat. Point out something.World Meteorological Organization not given an official name But Bowman-McLeod and others hope that an internationally recognized and standardized system will emerge within a few years. “That’s exactly our ambition,” she says. She declined to comment on whether Cerberus is appropriate, pointing out that the name Xenia applies only to the heat wave in Seville city.
Her organization uses algorithms that consider day and night temperatures, cloud cover, humidity and other factors to determine if a heat wave needs a name. A heat wave is named when the algorithm indicates that there is a significant risk to life, say, that overall mortality could increase by 30 percent, Bowman-McLeod said.
