Friday, January 29, 2016

Decades-long heatwaves may hit Europe as climate change bites

Buckle up. Europe is in for a bumpy ride as climate change gathers pace.

The continent could in future swing between climate extremes, including bursts of super-heatwaves that last for decades, according to an analysis of temperature data from the past 2000 years.

The study, which used tree ring data and other proxies for temperature, is the most detailed look at historical temperatures ever conducted for any continent.

“We now have a detailed picture of how summer temperatures have changed over Europe for more than 2000 years,” says Jürg Luterbacher at the University of Giessen, Germany, one of 45 researchers from 13 countries involved in the study.” More