Extreme heat waves are getting longer and hitting the tropics hardest: Study
Indonesia and Singapore have both recorded an additional 99 extreme heat days since May 2024. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Four billion people experienced at least 30 additional days of extreme temperatures over the past year as a result of climate change, with nations in the tropics the most severely impacted, according to a study released on May 30.
Indonesia and Singapore have both recorded an additional 99 extreme heat days since May 2024 when compared to a scenario that stripped out the impacts of global warming, researchers from London-based World Weather Attribution, US non-profit Climate Central, and the Red Cross Climate Centre found.
Barbados, Haiti and a number of other Caribbean and Pacific island states and territories each had more than 120 extra hot days.
Scientists defined extreme heat days as instances when daily temperatures were above 90 per cent of the historical average for a given location, aiming to gain better insight into conditions experienced locally rather than by making comparisons to worldwide averages.
Last year (2024) was the hottest ever recorded, and the period studied in the report covered several severe heat waves, including in the southwest US last June, across southern Europe the following month, and through central Asia in March 2025.
Periods of extreme heat disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, including older adults, low-income communities and pregnant people, the study said. There are frequently also negative effects on agricultural productivity, water availability and energy infrastructure.
Of the 247 countries and territories analysed in the study, those with the highest number of additional extreme heat days were overwhelmingly in regions closest to the equator.
'Temperatures are less variable in the tropics than in the mid-latitudes, which means that the climate change trend is emerging more clearly in tropical regions,' said Dr Clair Barnes, a research associate at Imperial College London and member of the World Weather Attribution group. That means those regions will more likely experience extreme heat, she said.
The World Weather Attribution group is an international scientific collaboration focused on finding out to what degree climate change is to blame for extreme weather events. Extreme heat has one of the strongest links to climate change.
Small island states are among the most exposed to and least prepared for climate risks, and saw the starkest increase in extreme heat days during the period studied.
That's because 'the oceans surrounding them tend to hold heat for a long time, keeping temperatures higher in what would previously have been cooler months,' Dr Barnes said. BLOOMBERG
Find out more about climate change and how it could affect you on the ST microsite here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Straits Times
Swiss glacier collapse offers global warning of wider impact
The Bietschhorn mountain on May 30 after the huge Birch Glacier collapsed. PHOTO: AFP DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts say. Footage of the May 28 collapse showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside, into the hamlet of Blatten. Mr Ali Neumann, disaster risk reduction adviser to the Swiss Development Cooperation, noted that while the role of climate change in the specific case of Blatten 'still needs to be investigated', the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere – the part of the world covered by frozen water. 'Climate change and its impact on the cryosphere will have growing repercussions on human societies that live near glaciers, near the cryosphere, and depend on glaciers somehow and live with them,' he said. The barrage largely destroyed Blatten, but the evacuation of its 300 residents last week averted mass casualties, although one person remains missing. 'It also showed that with the right skills and observation and management of an emergency, you can significantly reduce the magnitude of this type of disaster,' Mr Neumann said at an international UN-backed glacier conference in Tajikistan. Dr Stefan Uhlenbrook, director for Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organisation , said it showed the need for vulnerable regions like the Himalayas and other parts of Asia to prepare. 'From monitoring to data sharing, to numerical simulation models, to hazard assessment and to communicating that, the whole chain needs to be strengthened,' Dr Uhlenbrook said. 'But in many Asian countries, this is weak, the data is not sufficiently connected.' Swiss geologists use various methods, including sensors and satellite images, to monitor their glaciers. Asia was the world's most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said in 2024, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses. But many Asian nations, particularly in the Himalayas, lack the resources to monitor their vast glaciers to the same degree as the Swiss. According to a 2024 UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction report, two-thirds of countries in the Asia and Pacific region have early warning systems. But the least developed countries, many of whom are in the frontlines of climate change, have the worst coverage. 'Monitoring is not absent, but it is not enough,' said geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan of the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. 'Our terrains and climatic conditions are challenging, but also we lack that level of resources for intensive data generation.' That gap is reflected in the number of disaster-related fatalities for each event. While the average number of fatalities per disaster was 189 globally, in Asia and the Pacific it was much higher at 338, according to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters' Emergency Events Database. Geoscientist Jakob Steiner, who works in climate adaptation in Nepal and Bhutan, said it is not as simple as just exporting the Swiss technological solutions. 'These are complex disasters, working together with the communities is actually just as, if not much more, important,' he said. Himalayan glaciers, providing critical water to nearly two billion people, are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, scientists warn. Hundreds of lakes formed from glacial meltwater have appeared in recent decades. They can be deadly when they burst and rush down the valley. The softening of permafrost increases the chances of landslides. Mr Declan Magee, from the Asian Development Bank's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, said that monitoring and early warnings alone are not enough. 'We have to think... about where we build, where people build infrastructure and homes, and how we can decrease their vulnerability if it is exposed', he said. Nepali climate activist and filmmaker Tashi Lhazom described how the village of Til, near her home, was devastated by a landslide earlier in May. The 21 families escaped – but only just. 'In Switzerland they were evacuated days before, here we did not even get seconds,' said Ms Lhazom. 'The disparity makes me sad but also angry. This has to change.' AFP Find out more about climate change and how it could affect you on the ST microsite here.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Extreme heat waves are getting longer and hitting the tropics hardest: Study
Indonesia and Singapore have both recorded an additional 99 extreme heat days since May 2024. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO Four billion people experienced at least 30 additional days of extreme temperatures over the past year as a result of climate change, with nations in the tropics the most severely impacted, according to a study released on May 30. Indonesia and Singapore have both recorded an additional 99 extreme heat days since May 2024 when compared to a scenario that stripped out the impacts of global warming, researchers from London-based World Weather Attribution, US non-profit Climate Central, and the Red Cross Climate Centre found. Barbados, Haiti and a number of other Caribbean and Pacific island states and territories each had more than 120 extra hot days. Scientists defined extreme heat days as instances when daily temperatures were above 90 per cent of the historical average for a given location, aiming to gain better insight into conditions experienced locally rather than by making comparisons to worldwide averages. Last year (2024) was the hottest ever recorded, and the period studied in the report covered several severe heat waves, including in the southwest US last June, across southern Europe the following month, and through central Asia in March 2025. Periods of extreme heat disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, including older adults, low-income communities and pregnant people, the study said. There are frequently also negative effects on agricultural productivity, water availability and energy infrastructure. Of the 247 countries and territories analysed in the study, those with the highest number of additional extreme heat days were overwhelmingly in regions closest to the equator. 'Temperatures are less variable in the tropics than in the mid-latitudes, which means that the climate change trend is emerging more clearly in tropical regions,' said Dr Clair Barnes, a research associate at Imperial College London and member of the World Weather Attribution group. That means those regions will more likely experience extreme heat, she said. The World Weather Attribution group is an international scientific collaboration focused on finding out to what degree climate change is to blame for extreme weather events. Extreme heat has one of the strongest links to climate change. Small island states are among the most exposed to and least prepared for climate risks, and saw the starkest increase in extreme heat days during the period studied. That's because 'the oceans surrounding them tend to hold heat for a long time, keeping temperatures higher in what would previously have been cooler months,' Dr Barnes said. BLOOMBERG Find out more about climate change and how it could affect you on the ST microsite here.
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Straits Times
US-based Ukrainian says he completed Everest climb from sea level to summit in 4 days
Mr Andrew Ushakov, a structural engineer, said he did not use Xenon gas. PHOTO: REUTERS US-based Ukrainian says he completed Everest climb from sea level to summit in 4 days KATHMANDU - A Ukrainian man who lives in the United States said on May 23 that he had completed a journey from sea level in New York to the summit of Mount Everest in a record four days, saving weeks that mountaineers usually need to get used to high altitudes. Climbers to the world's highest mountain normally spend up to two months at different high camps to allow their bodies to adjust to the thin air before ascending to the 8,849m peak. The claim could not be verified independently as there is no authority in Nepal to verify the claims of records by climbers. However, usually when mountaineers claim a record it is acknowledged or contested by other climbers or mountaineering bodies that specialise in climbing-related information. Such verification often takes some weeks or months. On May 21, four British climbers who had inhaled Xenon gas in Germany before embarking on the expedition from London, completed their ascent from London to the summit in less than five days. The feat was also not independently verified. Mr Andrew Ushakov, a structural engineer who is relatively unknown as a climber, said he did not use Xenon gas. He said he embarked on his expedition from New York and scaled the Everest summit on May 19 in slightly less than four days. Similarly to the Britons, Mr Ushakov slept at home in a hypoxic tent that simulates high-altitude conditions before heading to Nepal, and used supplemental oxygen like other climbers. Mr Ushakov, 40, told Reuters in Kathmandu that he hoped his feat, which came after two years of preparation and research, would set an example for his six-year-old son to do 'something big' in the future and encourage people to take to mountaineering without having to leave work and family for long. Mr Ushakov said that in an attempt to make a fast ascent of Everest in 2024, he reached 8,500m but developed a vision problem and failed to complete the climb. He said he broke his arm in Ecuador two months ago when he was hit by an avalanche. Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, has issued permits to 468 people to climb Mount Everest during the current season ending this month. About 300 climbers, including the Sherpa guides, have scaled the summit so far. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
