New York: Extreme heat is breaking records worldwide, intensifying the ongoing crisis with wildfires and deteriorating air quality, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released Thursday. The report highlights the severe impact of rising temperatures, which have led to approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, with a significant portion occurring in Europe and Asia.
According to EMM, the health impacts of extreme heat are particularly severe in urban areas due to the urban heat island effect, where dense city areas become significantly hotter than their rural surroundings. This phenomenon is magnifying problems as urbanization continues to rise. Southeast Europe has experienced intense heatwaves and wildfire activity, with Turkey recording a national high of 50.5 degrees Celsius (122.9 degrees Fahrenheit).
In Asia, regions such as the Himalayas, China, and Japan have seen temperatures soar above average, continuing into August. In early August, temperatures exceeded 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) across West Asia, southern Central Asia, the southwestern US, North Africa, and southern Pakistan, with some areas surpassing 45 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit). Southwestern Iran and eastern Iraq experienced severe temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), disrupting essential services like electricity, water supplies, education, and labor.
Morocco issued heat warnings for temperatures up to 47 degrees Celsius (116 degrees Fahrenheit) during the first week of August. Korea also faced widespread heat warnings, with temperature records being broken across parts of China. On 5 August, Japan set a new national temperature record of 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.2 degrees Fahrenheit), surpassing the previous record set a week earlier.
Looking ahead, the World Meteorological Centre in Beijing forecasts that heatwaves will persist in the same regions, as well as the Iberian Peninsula and northern Mexico. These areas are expected to experience maximum temperatures between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius (100.4 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit), with parts of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, North Africa, and the southwestern U.S. likely to exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
Canada is enduring one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with 6.6 million hectares burned. Smoke from these fires has polluted skies and caused poor air quality across several provinces and northern states of the US in late July and early August. Twice this summer, smoke from Canadian fires crossed the Atlantic, impacting skies over Western Europe in early August and over Central and Southern Europe in late June.
Elsewhere, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey have battled wildfires that forced evacuations and caused fatalities. In the US, a wildfire in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park disrupted tourism at the iconic site. The WMO emphasizes that extreme heat, often termed the silent killer, is preventable with today’s scientific advancements, data, and technologies. The organization is working to strengthen heat early warning systems under the Early Warnings for All initiative and is aiding countries in developing heat-health action plans to ensure at-risk populations receive timely alerts.
WMO is among ten UN agencies supporting the Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat, which seeks to boost global cooperation to mitigate heat impacts through economic and social policy. A key objective is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. Estimates from WMO and the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that expanding heat-health warning systems in 57 countries could save nearly 100,000 lives annually.
“Our Network is connecting science, policy, and action so that no community is left behind in the race to adapt to climate change that will continue to worsen extreme heat for years to come,” said Joy Shumake-Guillemot, lead of the WHO-WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme and co-lead of the Global Heat-Health Information Network (GHHIN). “This is not just a climate issue, it’s a public health emergency,” she concluded.