Extreme heat radiates around the globe, as U.S., China enter climate
talks
Send a link to a friend
[July 18, 2023]
By Liliana Salgado
PHOENIX (Reuters) -Asia, Europe and the United States baked under
extreme heat on Monday as global temperatures soared toward alarming
highs and U.S. leaders sought to reignite climate diplomacy with China.
The United States was scorched by record-setting heat in the West and
South, lashed with flood-triggering rain in the Northeast, and choked by
wildfire smoke in the Midwest.
A heat dome parked over the western United States pushed the temperature
in California's Death Valley desert to 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) on
Sunday, among the highest temperatures recorded on Earth in the past 90
years.
Phoenix hit 114F (45.5C) on Monday, matching a historic record of 18
straight days over 110F with the forecast showing the record likely to
extend for at least another week.
The U.S. heatwave coincided with extreme temperatures elsewhere
throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
A remote town in China's arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national
record of 52.2C (126F). Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat
wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C
(118F), while authorities in Italy and France issued heat-related health
warnings.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/18/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png)
Even in Phoenix, accustomed to hot weather, the prolonged bout of
extreme heat is testing people and worrying officials. The international
charitable organization Salvation Army has opened 11 cooling centers and
sent out a mobile unit to deliver relief to homeless people who have
difficulty reaching the sites.
"Extreme heat is Arizona's natural disaster. So for the Salvation Army,
this is a disaster response," said Scott Johnson, a spokesperson for the
organization in the U.S. Southwest.
The heat killed 425 people in the Phoenix-area's Maricopa County last
year, so the Salvation Army mobile unit distributes urgently needed cold
water, hats, sunscreen and hygiene kits to those in need.
"It feels like you're inside of a dryer, the dryer at the laundromat.
And it's suffocating," said Cristina Hill, an unhoused woman who
benefited from the outreach on Monday and said she suffered a heat
stroke last year. "I cry all the time. I yell at the heat."
Another unhoused woman, Maritza Villegas, said she has gotten shaky and
jittery from the heat, which provoked dry heaves.
"This means a whole lot - the world - because without water I'd be in
the hospital right now," Villegas said of the assistance.
Scientists have long warned that climate change, caused by CO2 emissions
from burning fossil fuels, will make heatwaves more frequent, severe and
deadly. They say governments need to take drastic actions to reduce
omissions to prevent climate catastrophe.
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service says 2022 and
2021 were the continent's hottest summers on record.
U.S., CHINA IN CLIMATE TALKS
The extreme global temperatures underscored the urgency in talks that
resumed between China and the United States on climate change,
especially as scientists say the target of keeping global warming within
1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels is moving beyond reach.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/18/images/ads/current/LPL_small%201.gif)
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/071823PIX/news_h9.jpg)
A view of smoke billowing from mountain
of a raging wildfire in Tijarafe, on the Canary Island of La Palma,
Spain July 16, 2023. EIRIF Handout/ Handout via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/18/images/ads/current/graue_lda_preowned_071823.jpg)
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in
Beijing, urging joint action to cut methane emissions and coal-fired
power.
"In the next three days, we hope we can begin taking some big steps
that will send a signal to the world about the serious purpose of
China and the United States to address a common risk, threat,
challenge to all of humanity created by humans themselves," Kerry
said.
"It is toxic for both Chinese and for Americans and for people in
every country on the planet."
Prolonged high temperatures in China are threatening power grids and
crops and raising concerns about a repeat of last year's drought,
the most severe in 60 years.
Typhoon Talim was gaining strength and due to make land at night
along China's southern coast, forcing the cancellation of flights
and trains in the regions of Guangdong and Hainan.
In South Korea, torrential rains left 40 people dead as river levees
collapsed causing flash floods. They followed the heaviest recorded
rain in the capital Seoul last year.
EUROPEAN HEATWAVE UNRELENTING
An unrelenting heatwave continued in Europe as well.
Italy's health ministry on Monday issued red weather alerts -
signaling a possible health threat for anyone exposed to the heat -
for 20 of the country's 27 main cities on Tuesday, with the number
expected to rise to 23 on Wednesday.
France's public health agency said the current stretch of hot
weather would probably hospitalize or kill "many" people, as heat
waves have done almost every summer since 2015. The World
Meteorological Organization said the extreme heat and rainfall was
expected to extend into August.
"In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest
day on record," tweeted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general
of the World Health Organisation.
"The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It's happening. I urge world
leaders to ACT now."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/18/images/ads/current/nutrienag_sda_HEROES_2023.png)
As many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe during heatwaves
last summer, with a repetition feared this season.
"My worry is really health - the health of vulnerable people who
live just below the rooftops of houses which are not prepared for
such high temperatures," said Robert Vautard, a climate scientist
and director of France's Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute. "That could
create a lot of deaths."
(Reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels, Valerie Volcovici in Beijing,
Charlie Devereaux and Emma Pinedo in Madrid, Giselda Vagnoni and
Crispian Balmer in Rome, Emma Farge in Geneva, Michele Kambas in
Nicosia, Hyonhee Shin in Seoul, Julia Harte in New York and Liliana
Salgado in Phoenix; Writing by Charlie Devereux and Daniel Trotta;
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Nick Zieminski and Aurora Ellis)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |