heat wave that is tearing across the
south of the continent temperatures in
the central Mediterranean are expected
to Peak today this is Italy where there
are warnings that the extreme heat could
continue for a further 10 days
temperatures there could reach 46
degrees Celsius on the island of
Sardinia while hot weather alerts are
also in place across most of Spain there
have been reports of power Cuts in some
areas as demand surges because of air
conditioning
well here's why it is so hot a high
pressure system held in place by the jet
stream a rapidly moving flow of air high
in the atmosphere is funneling heat up
from the deserts of North Africa and
across southern Europe
live now to our climate editor Justin
rollout who's in Alicante in southern
Spain Justin High just after 9 A.M there
how's it feeling
well it's hot you won't be surprised to
hear Samantha the Sun's Up blazing sun
temperatures are rising when I got up
this morning at about 6 30 it was 27
degrees it was 30 degrees when I went to
bed at night so really high temperatures
at night and that's the the kind of
level at which we start the day
temperatures Rising here we're expecting
here in Alicante to hit the late 30s but
Inland from here where it's drier and
therefore hotter it's going to be like
43 maybe 44 degrees Celsius Celsius
Spain in Northern Spain yesterday there
was a temperature of 47.1 degrees
Celsius record it's a really hot
temperatures here in Spain in Italy and
that hot weather that you described just
now is going to be moving across
southern Europe and into Greece over the
course of this week so really very very
high temperatures here
they compare obviously we're looking at
record temperatures but Spain for
example has seen increasing temperatures
over the last few years haven't they
they certainly have and behind it all of
course is the effect of climate change
pushing out the uh the the the the
temperature extremes so what climate
change gives us is longer heat waves and
higher Peaks so some of the temperatures
we've been experiencing this week in
southern Europe are almost 10 degrees
above normal and that's because the
whole distribution of temperatures has
been skewed and what's so extraordinary
is that we've got three very similar you
describe the anticyclone the high
pressure system over Europe we've got
very similar anticyclones Over America
and over China as well so record
temperatures in across three con
continents uh in the northern hemisphere
during this incredibly hot summer and
I've got to say we're expecting even
hotter temperatures next year yeah
Justin why is that then what are
scientists saying about why higher
temperatures next year
well what we've got this this year is is
I mean this year was unexpected these
heat waves were not predicted we thought
this would be a warm year but not a
particularly not extremely hot year what
we've got happening is an El Nino which
is a warming of the tropical Pacific
which delivers an extra blast an extra
puncture heat to the the global system
it doesn't sound like much it's an 0.2
degrees Celsius on average but enough to
push temperatures again a little further
into record temperatures that started
this year it's going to Peak in October
and November and sort of deliver the
main heat in the in 2024 so at the
beginning of the year scientists would
say you know this year will be warm will
be hot but it's not likely to be
exceptional it's next year they were
worried about well we've got an
incredibly hot year this year and as I
say scientists are saying next year is
likely to be even hotter okay Justin go
and get some shade thank you for now
well our reporter Chris Brockman is in
to lose and gave us an update from there
just an hour ago it was already 23
degrees this will probably be the
hottest part of France today we expect
40 41 place called Albi mediters no well
to UNESCO heritage site will be 4142.
obviously it gets hot in summer it gets
hot down here a lot but what we're
seeing so much more often now is these
peaks of 40 degrees on a regular basis
and climatologists who have been
studying this region and Bordeaux say
that they will have temperatures here
equivalent to North Africa Algeria Iran
and Algiers in less than 20 years time
unless something's done about this
climate change and we're seeing
temperatures rising two to three degrees
here that's what we're talking about on
an annual basis
well our U.S West Coast correspondent
Sophie long is in Las Vegas where
consistently high temperatures are
showing no signs of easing this is the
desert so they are used to high
temperatures but nothing really like
this they thought it was going to break
the record for the hottest day ever in
Las Vegas yesterday it stopped just
short of that but I mean it's past 10
p.m here now and it's still very very
hot you can probably see there's a bit
of a breeze which makes things slightly
more bearable but um it's a very hot
wind you can feel the heat from the
ground still coming up through my shoes
and one of the reasons it's been so
difficult for people to cope with here
is because just before this heat wave
struck they were actually experiencing
much cooler temperatures than normal
they recorded 260 days more than 260
days of temperatures below 100 degrees
Fahrenheit which is a cool record for
Las Vegas so the heat came over the July
4th holiday weekend and it came with a
Vengeance and there's been no let up
since and that meant that people had
very little warning and very little time
to acclimatized and it's not just here
of course Phoenix Arizona as well 18
executive days of temperatures above 43
Celsius so that's the situation here
it's still hot and it shows no sign of
changing
Sophie long there well at midnight last
night the temperature to weather station
Death Valley Arizona was still 49
degrees Celsius reported as
provisionally a new record for a
midnight temperature
and this is China typhoon talim hit
overnight displacing thousands it comes
just days after China provisionally
recorded its highest temperature of 52.2
degrees Celsius in xinjiang the storm is
now heading for Vietnam where 30 000
people in its path have moved to safer
ground floods in South Korea have
claimed dozens of lives prompting its
leaders to rethink their response to
climate change
well the U.S climate Envoy John Kerry
has told his Chinese counterpart that
climate change poses a threat to all
humankind he made the comments during a
second day of face-to-face meetings in
Beijing Mr Kerry said solving climate
change requires a new kind of
cooperation between China and the United
States the two biggest emitters China's
top Diplomat Wang Yi said there was a
need for a healthy stable and
sustainable relationship
Joyce Lee from The BBC's Chinese service
has been following the discussions from
Hong Kong
well we haven't heard of much concrete
plants yet but uh the U.S and China has
expressed their willingness to have more
cooperations between the two countries
and um actually John Kerry's is the
latest top U.S official visiting China
following Lincoln then Yellen and it
marks the formal resumption of top level
climate diplomacy between the two sides
because there was a suspension in talks
since last August when Nancy Pelosi
visited Taiwan so this three days or
formal talks it's very symbolic for the
two countries in terms of diplomacy as
well as climate cooperation and uh John
Kerry said that the two countries should
put aside the Diplomatic differences and
have more cooperation in climb to combat
climate change the U.S is hoping that
China concrete curve is immersion
particularly from coal as well as
methane but China
accused U.S of you know not cutting its
own Greenhouse emissions and the thing
that China is still a developing country
with historical emissions that remain
significantly lower
proportionately to that of the US so
there are still disagreements but it's a
start for the two countries to cooperate
I mean in terms of carbon emissions per
capita China is lower than the US isn't
it quite significantly
yes it is that's why the two sides have
still have a lot of disagreements and we
are hoping to see more cooperations like
more concrete plans coming
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