heat wave

In addition to fueling Wednesday’s freakish bomb cyclone in the Pacific Northwest, atmospheric rivers were also responsible for a freakish Antarctic heat wave in April.

“Climate change is threatening water resources, increasing challenges to food and fiber production, and compromising human health in the Southwest through drought, wildfire, intense precipitation, sea level rise, and marine heat waves,” Declet-Barreto said.

“We are seeing or starting to see more severe impacts of climate change, so heat waves have driven up energy demand for cooling of homes and offices,” said Dr Anne Olhoff, from UNEP.

An even higher percentage of these areas, between 15 percent and 36 percent, is expected to regularly experience droughts due to the frequent heat waves caused by climate change.

For decades Antarctica has reeled from a series of ocean heat waves and ice loss events.