US heatwave threatens 250th anniversary events and World Cup | US news
The scorching heat that has blanketed much of the US this week would be “almost impossible” if not for the climate crisis, and high temperatures could threaten Independence Day celebrations and World Cup matches this weekend, researchers have warned.
“The climate the country has today is fundamentally different from the climate it had when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence,” Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London, said in a press release.
Analysis World Weather CitationThe high-pressure system, or heat dome, brings hot, humid conditions to southern parts of Canada as well as a wide swath of the central and eastern United States, an international consortium of climate researchers said.
Even amid a climate crisis caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, such heat waves are rare, occurring an estimated once every 200 years, the analysis says.
But if planet-warming emissions had not warmed the planet by 1.4°C (2.5°F), such events would not be expected to occur even once every thousands of years, the researchers said.
The mercury is expected to rise in the US capital, Washington DC, where thousands of people gathered to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary.
World Cup matches will also be affected. France’s match against Paraguay in Philadelphia on Saturday is expected to see extreme heat levels that the global players’ union has previously said would trigger a delay or postponement of games, and the Miami match between Cape Verde and Argentina scheduled a day earlier is also expected to be played in potentially dangerous heat and humidity conditions.
Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at Imperial College London’s Center for Environmental Policy, said in a statement that this was an urgent warning that the world must start rapidly reducing greenhouse gas pollution.
“When a historic Fourth of July celebration is disrupted and World Cup matches are played in unsafe conditions for players and fans, there is no need for another scientific study to wake people up,” he said.
“Climate change is here; it is already affecting the things we enjoy in our daily lives and will continue to worsen as the inevitable transition to net zero emissions drags on.”
