Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent with climate change as it intensifies weather events by altering temperatures, precipitation, and wind patterns, leading to conditions conducive to more violent phenomena such as storms, droughts, or floods.
The overall rise in temperatures directly disrupts atmospheric dynamics, leading to imbalances that significantly boost extreme phenomena. A warmer climate means an atmosphere with more available energy. This additional energy helps robust weather events like storms, hurricanes, or heat waves to become more frequent and more intense. Changes are observed in wind circulation, particularly in the jet streams, those large ribbons of fast air that circle the planet. When they become unstable or slow down, it generates intense cold or heat waves in regions normally spared. The result? A less predictable global climate, with more difficult-to-anticipate weather extremes.
Climate change is leading to rising temperatures, which significantly intensifies the evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, and soils. As a result, there is more humidity stored in the air, leading to more abundant precipitation when this humidity eventually falls somewhere. This phenomenon disrupts the natural water cycle: depending on the location, we either experience intense rainfall or even sudden floods, or much longer periods of dryness. Some parts of the world even experience swings between these two extremes, rapidly transitioning from severe droughts to episodes of torrential rain, all caused by the climate imbalances we are currently facing.
Ocean currents normally function like giant conveyor belts that redistribute heat across the planet. However, with climate change, these currents are beginning to change their rhythm or even their trajectory. The Gulf Stream, for example, transports an enormous mass of warm water to Europe: if it slows down or changes, it completely disrupts the thermal balance of the atmosphere and the ocean. The result: sudden changes in sea temperatures, leading to more frequent extreme weather events such as powerful storms or more violent hurricanes. In short, the disruption of currents disturbs the entire ocean-air mechanism, ultimately creating quite a mess with the weather.
With climate change, periods of drought are becoming more frequent, longer, and more severe. Soils lose their moisture faster due to rising temperatures, leaving plants and crops stranded. The result here and there: more vulnerable forests, ruined harvests, and water resources at an all-time low. Alongside this, heatwaves are also multiplying, regularly breaking new temperature records. These increasingly common heat episodes put a severe strain on living organisms, ecosystems, and electrical grids. Not only do they exhaust our bodies, but they also significantly increase the risks of wildfires and exacerbate air quality issues.
The rise in temperatures is accelerating the melting of ice at the poles and mountain glaciers, adding a significant amount of freshwater to the oceans. This leads to a rise in sea levels worldwide, directly threatening populations living near the coast. A concrete result: coastlines are increasingly experiencing major flooding during storms and high tides, causing significant human and economic damage. Entire cities may even risk disappearing underwater in the coming decades if nothing changes.
A report from the IPCC indicates that an increase of just 1 degree Celsius in the average global temperature corresponds to a significant rise in droughts, heatwaves, and extreme precipitation across the planet.
Hurricanes and cyclones are becoming more powerful due to climate change: each additional degree increases the energy potential of cyclones by about 7%, making these phenomena more destructive.
Urban areas sometimes experience what is called an "urban heat island": they accumulate heat during the day and release it at night, thereby intensifying the effects of heat waves locally.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the number of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms, and floods, has increased fivefold over the past 50 years.
Climate change, by warming the oceans, intensifies hurricanes and tropical cyclones by providing them with more thermal energy, which potentially increases their frequency, strength, and ability to cause more severe damage.
Although it is not possible to attribute any individual event solely to climate change, it is established that global warming makes certain extreme weather phenomena more likely and increases their severity and frequency.
The most vulnerable regions include coastal areas subjected to rising sea levels and cyclones, tropical and subtropical zones with their high temperatures, as well as already arid regions where droughts will be exacerbated, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Australia.
Measures such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening infrastructure against extreme weather risks, protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, and implementing local climate adaptation policies are essential to reduce vulnerability.
The phenomena most directly influenced include heatwaves, prolonged drought episodes, intensified heavy rainfall leading to floods, more frequent or intense tropical storms, and an increase in wildfires.
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