Heatwave – Page 3 – World Weather Attribution

Heat Action Day Report: Climate change and the escalation of global extreme heat

A map of the world showing heat anomalies over a 12 month period up until May 2024.

Researchers from World Weather Attribution assessed the influence of human-caused climate change on dangerous heat waves over the past 12 months, in collaboration with Climate Central and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

Climate change made the deadly heatwaves that hit millions of highly vulnerable people across Asia more frequent and extreme

A crowded market in Kolkata India. The market is quite dark with a ray of light through the centre, illuminating a strip of people.

Throughout April and continuing into May 2024, extreme record-breaking heat led to severe impacts across the Asian continent.

Extreme Sahel heatwave that hit highly vulnerable population at the end of Ramadan would not have occurred without climate change

A man drags a trolley of water containers in the street in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

At the end of March and the beginning of April 2024 a region across the Sahel and West Africa experienced extreme heat, with maximum temperatures in the Sahel reaching more than 45°C and minimum temperatures of 32°C in Burkina Faso (Burkina Faso Meteorological Agency). Kayes in Mali recorded 48.5°C on 3 April.

Dangerous humid heat in southern West Africa about 4°C hotter due to climate change

A busy market in Lagos, Nigeria with umbrellas and a very crowded street

Southern West Africa experienced unusually excessive humid heat early in the season.

Extreme poverty renders Madagascar highly vulnerable to underreported extreme heat that would not have occurred without human-induced climate change

A street in Antananarivo, Madagascar with people sitting on the ground selling fruit.

Madagascar, in particular the most populated region around the capital of Antananarivo experienced in 2023 its hottest October ever, breaking many high and low temperature records.