The world’s first designated heat wave reached Seville, Spain, this week, pushing temperatures beyond 110 degrees Fahrenheit and earning the city’s new heat wave rating system’s most severe rung.
For the previous few days, heat wave “Zoe” has delivered blistering temperatures to the southern half of the country, notably the area of Andalusia where Seville is located. Even in the evenings, the Spanish meteorological office reported temperatures in the mid-80s in certain locations, putting an added strain on the human body, which depends on cooler nights to recuperate from the heat of the day.
Zoe is the first named heat wave to hit Seville since the city formally established a new trial program for naming and rating heat waves last month, comparable to hurricanes (Climatewire, June 22). Only the most severe heat waves are given names, which are assigned in reverse alphabetical order this year. Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao, and Vega follow Zoe.
The worst of the heat is likely to subside today. However, according to proMETEO Sevilla, Seville’s new heat wave ranking system, it presented a substantial risk to human health while it lasted.
The initiative is a partnership between Seville and the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock), as well as the Spanish Office for Climate Change and other Spanish universities and research institutions. Heat waves in Seville are classified into three categories, with Category 1 being the least severe and Category 3 being the most severe.
The method comprises different criteria for each category, including not just daytime temperatures, but also overnight lows, humidity, and the potential impacts of heat on human health. Each tier initiates a specific set of emergency response services, such as sending weather warnings, creating cooling facilities, and dispatching community health teams to check on vulnerable people.
Spain has already been dealing with high heat for much of the summer. According to the Spanish meteorological office, the first two weeks of June were the warmest on record in the country, breaking local records around the country.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, this year was Europe’s second warmest June on record.
The extreme heat reappeared early this month. Cities across Spain set monthly temperature records, as wildfires erupted across the country.
High temperatures have also burned other sections of Western Europe, where heat waves are escalating up to four times quicker than elsewhere in the midlatitudes (Climatewire, July 18). Temperatures in the United Kingdom soared beyond 104 degrees, shattering the country’s all-time high numerous times in a single day (Climatewire, July 20).
Heat waves are becoming more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting all around the world as a result of climate change, raising the hazards to human health. The new naming and rating system in Seville is meant to raise public awareness about the hazards of severe heat.
It is presently the only system that has a naming component. However, comparable rating schemes are being implemented in other cities. Athens, Greece, recently unveiled a new method for categorizing heat waves, while cities around the United States, including Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, and Kansas City, Mo., are implementing similar trial programs of their own.
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