First, immediate impacts, such as fires and heat waves, are now conspicuously larger, longer, more frequent, and much deadlier. The loss of 1,200 people in the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave — featuring mostly “dry heat” — is likely to prove modest compared to an equally large and long heat wave in the Midwest’s humid Mississippi Valley. Caught completely unprepared, the massive European heat wave of 2003 claimed more than 70,000 lives. Summer Heat Waves Killed 61,000 in Europe Last Year, Study Says. 2003 European heat wave.

Source: Washington Post September 08, 2023 16:04 UTC