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Straits Times
3 days ago
- Science
- 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.
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Climate change made fire conditions twice as likely in South Korea blazes: Study
Climate change made fire conditions twice as likely in South Korea blazes: Study (Photo: AP) Human-induced climate change made the ultra-dry and warm conditions that fanned South Korea's deadliest wildfires in history this March twice as likely and more intense, researchers said Thursday. Vast swaths of the country's southeast were burned in a series of blazes in March, which killed 31 people and destroyed historic sites, including a some thousand-year-old temple site. The affected area had been experiencing below-average rainfall for months and was then hit by strong winds, local officials said, following South Korea's hottest year on record in 2024. The hot, dry and windy conditions that fed the flames were "twice as likely and about 15 percent more intense" due to human-caused climate change, said World Weather Attribution, a scientific network that studies the influence of global warming on extreme weather. "South Korea's deadliest wildfires were made much more likely by climate change," said Clair Barnes, a WWA researcher from the centre for environmental policy , Imperial College London. Officials said at the time that the conditions made it very hard for conventional firefighting methods to control the blazes, which leapt from pine tree to pine tree across dried-out hillsides. "These unprecedented conditions exposed the limits of even well-developed suppression systems," WWA said in a report of its findings. "With fires increasingly likely to exceed control capacity, the emphasis must shift toward proactive risk reduction," it added. More than 62 percent of South Korea is covered in forest, the report said, with dense tree cover especially prominent along the eastern coast and in mountainous regions, landscapes that significantly influence how wildfires spread. Around 11 percent of South Korea's forested areas border human settlements, the study said. "These areas are particularly susceptible to ignition and have accounted for nearly 30 percent of wildfires recorded between 2016 and 2022." The researchers' findings were most conclusive regarding the increased likelihood of fire weather, which is measured by the Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDWI) and higher maximum temperatures. But they found no attributable link between climate change and rainfall levels during the period surrounding the fires. Fires rage South Korea has few energy resources of its own and relies on imported coal, a cheap but dirty fuel for around a third of the electricity powering it, according to figures from the International energy agency. The inferno in March also laid bare the country's demographic crisis and regional disparities, as rural areas are both underpopulated and disproportionately home to senior citizens. Many of the dead were seniors, and experts have warned that it will be hard for people to rebuild their lives in the burn zone. In the weeks and months since, South Korea has recorded a string of wildfires. In April, helicopters were deployed to contain a wildfire within the DMZ, the buffer zone separating the South from nuclear-armed North Korea. This week, more than 2,000 people were forced to evacuate after wildfires occurred in parts of the southeastern city of Daegu, after a blaze broke out on Mount Hamji in the region. WWA is a pioneer in attribution science, which uses peer-reviewed methods to quickly assess the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events. This allows a comparison of observations from today's climate, with some 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming, against computer simulations that consider the climate before humanity started burning fossil fuels in the 1800s.
Yomiuri Shimbun
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Yomiuri Shimbun
South Korea's Deadly Fires Made Twice as Likely by Climate Change, Researchers Say
Reuters A vehicle stands amid the damage in the aftermath of a wildfire, in Yeongyang, South Korea, March 28, 2025. REUTERS SINGAPORE, May 1 (Reuters) – South Korea's worst ever wildfires in March were made twice as likely as a result of climate change and such disasters could become even more frequent if temperatures continue to rise, scientists said on Thursday. Fires in the country's southeast blazed for nearly a week, killing 32 people and destroying around 5,000 buildings before they were brought under control in late March. The fires burned through 104,000 hectares (257,000 acres) of land, making them nearly four times more extensive than South Korea's previous worst fire season 25 years ago. The hot, dry and windy conditions were made twice as likely and 15% more intense as a result of climate change, a team of 15 researchers with the World Weather Attribution group said after combining observational data with climate modelling. South Korea normally experiences cold dry winters and rapid increases in temperature in March and April, making it vulnerable to fires at that time of year, said June-Yi Lee of the Research Center for Climate Sciences at Pusan National University. This year, average temperatures from March 22-26 were 10 degrees Celsius higher than usual in the southeast, and patterns of low and high pressure to the north and south generated the powerful winds that helped the fire spread, she told a briefing. 'This year, the size of the impact was very extreme … because of the dry weather, the heat and the high temperatures – a perfect storm of conditions,' she said. The weather that drove the fires could become even more common if global warming continues on its current trajectory and rises another 1.3 degrees by 2100. 'The models project on average a further increase of about 5% in intensity and a further doubling of the likelihood of similarly extreme events,' said Clair Barnes of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London (ICL). The blazes also raised concerns that South Korea's extensive tree planting programme since the 1970s had made the country more fire-prone, and forest management needs to adjust to meet the challenges of extreme heat, said Theo Keeping at ICL's Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires. 'Once a wildfire event is extreme enough, it can't be put out with drops from planes and helicopters or from spraying water from the ground … so we need to manage risk before these events happen,' he said.
Malay Mail
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Climate change made fire conditions twice as likely in South Korea blazes, study finds
SEOUL, May 1 — Human-induced climate change made the ultra-dry and warm conditions that fanned South Korea's deadliest wildfires in history this March twice as likely and more intense, researchers said Thursday. Vast swaths of the country's south-east were burned in a series of blazes in March, which killed 31 people and destroyed historic sites, including a some thousand-year-old temple site. The affected area had been experiencing below-average rainfall for months and was then hit by strong winds, local officials said, following South Korea's hottest year on record in 2024. The hot, dry and windy conditions that fed the flames were 'twice as likely and about 15 per cent more intense' due to human-caused climate change, said World Weather Attribution, a scientific network that studies the influence of global warming on extreme weather. 'South Korea's deadliest wildfires were made much more likely by climate change,' said Clair Barnes, a WWA researcher from the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. Officials said at the time that the conditions made it very hard for conventional firefighting methods to control the blazes, which leapt from pine tree to pine tree across dried-out hillsides. 'These unprecedented conditions exposed the limits of even well-developed suppression systems,' WWA said in a report of its findings. 'With fires increasingly likely to exceed control capacity, the emphasis must shift toward proactive risk reduction,' it added. More than 62 per cent of South Korea is covered in forest, the report said, with dense tree cover especially prominent along the eastern coast and in mountainous regions, landscapes that significantly influence how wildfires spread. Around 11 per cent of South Korea's forested areas border human settlements, the study said. 'These areas are particularly susceptible to ignition and have accounted for nearly 30 per cent of wildfires recorded between 2016 and 2022.' The researchers' findings were most conclusive regarding the increased likelihood of fire weather — which is measured by the Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDWI) — and higher maximum temperatures. But they found no attributable link between climate change and rainfall levels during the period surrounding the fires. Fires rage South Korea has few energy resources of its own and relies on imported coal — a cheap but dirty fuel — for around a third of the electricity powering it, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. The inferno in March also laid bare the country's demographic crisis and regional disparities, as rural areas are both underpopulated and disproportionately home to senior citizens. Many of the dead were seniors, and experts have warned that it will be hard for people to rebuild their lives in the burn zone. In the weeks and months since, South Korea has recorded a string of wildfires. In April, helicopters were deployed to contain a wildfire within the DMZ, the buffer zone separating the South from nuclear-armed North Korea. This week, more than 2,000 people were forced to evacuate after wildfires occurred in parts of the south-eastern city of Daegu, after a blaze broke out on Mount Hamji in the region. WWA is a pioneer in attribution science, which uses peer-reviewed methods to quickly assess the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events. This allows a comparison of observations from today's climate, with some 1.3°Celsius of warming, against computer simulations that consider the climate before humanity started burning fossil fuels in the 1800s. — AFP
Malay Mail
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Climate change made fire conditions twice as likely in South Korea blazes: study
SEOUL, May 1 — Human-induced climate change made the ultra-dry and warm conditions that fanned South Korea's deadliest wildfires in history this March twice as likely and more intense, researchers said Thursday. Vast swaths of the country's south-east were burned in a series of blazes in March, which killed 31 people and destroyed historic sites, including a some thousand-year-old temple site. The affected area had been experiencing below-average rainfall for months and was then hit by strong winds, local officials said, following South Korea's hottest year on record in 2024. The hot, dry and windy conditions that fed the flames were 'twice as likely and about 15 per cent more intense' due to human-caused climate change, said World Weather Attribution, a scientific network that studies the influence of global warming on extreme weather. 'South Korea's deadliest wildfires were made much more likely by climate change,' said Clair Barnes, a WWA researcher from the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. Officials said at the time that the conditions made it very hard for conventional firefighting methods to control the blazes, which leapt from pine tree to pine tree across dried-out hillsides. 'These unprecedented conditions exposed the limits of even well-developed suppression systems,' WWA said in a report of its findings. 'With fires increasingly likely to exceed control capacity, the emphasis must shift toward proactive risk reduction,' it added. More than 62 per cent of South Korea is covered in forest, the report said, with dense tree cover especially prominent along the eastern coast and in mountainous regions, landscapes that significantly influence how wildfires spread. Around 11 per cent of South Korea's forested areas border human settlements, the study said. 'These areas are particularly susceptible to ignition and have accounted for nearly 30 per cent of wildfires recorded between 2016 and 2022.' The researchers' findings were most conclusive regarding the increased likelihood of fire weather — which is measured by the Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDWI) — and higher maximum temperatures. But they found no attributable link between climate change and rainfall levels during the period surrounding the fires. Fires rage South Korea has few energy resources of its own and relies on imported coal — a cheap but dirty fuel — for around a third of the electricity powering it, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. The inferno in March also laid bare the country's demographic crisis and regional disparities, as rural areas are both underpopulated and disproportionately home to senior citizens. Many of the dead were seniors, and experts have warned that it will be hard for people to rebuild their lives in the burn zone. In the weeks and months since, South Korea has recorded a string of wildfires. In April, helicopters were deployed to contain a wildfire within the DMZ, the buffer zone separating the South from nuclear-armed North Korea. This week, more than 2,000 people were forced to evacuate after wildfires occurred in parts of the south-eastern city of Daegu, after a blaze broke out on Mount Hamji in the region. WWA is a pioneer in attribution science, which uses peer-reviewed methods to quickly assess the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events. This allows a comparison of observations from today's climate, with some 1.3°Celsius of warming, against computer simulations that consider the climate before humanity started burning fossil fuels in the 1800s. — AFP
