Increasing frequency of heat waves worldwide since the 1950s

New research from the University of New South Wales in Australia has determined that the frequency of heat waves has increased across nearly all parts of the world since the early 1950s.

People enjoy the sun and the fountains of the Trocadero gardens in Paris, Thursday, July 25, 2019, when a new all-time high temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 F) hit the French capital. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

The research team also developed a new metric, which measures how much heat there is in individual heat waves and heat wave seasons. This metric is call cumulative heat, and to no surprise that metric is also increasing anywhere from 1 to 4.5 degrees Celsius each decade. Some parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America have had an increase as much as 10 C per decade.

Heat wave intensity, which measures the average temperature across heat waves, has not accelerated. The reason for this is that we are experiencing more heat wave days and heat waves are lasting longer.

Key excerpts from the USNW Newsroom article......

"Not only have we seen more and longer heat waves worldwide over the past 70 years, but this trend has markedly accelerated," said lead author Dr Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

"The dramatic region-by-region change in heat waves we have witnessed over the past 70 years and the rapid increase in the number of these events, are unequivocal indicators that global warming is now with us and accelerating.

This peer-reviewed study was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.