How to predict record-shattering weather events
Meteorologists are trying to work out just how common they will become
The heatwave that struck parts of North America’s Pacific coast in 2021 propelled temperatures in Lytton, a village in British Columbia, to 49.6°C—4.6° higher than the previous record. On the fourth day of this torment the place erupted in flames and was almost completely destroyed (see picture). These events were so out of the ordinary that, in a press conference held some weeks later by climate modellers, they struggled to explain how circumstances had conjured them.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The heat is on”
From the February 11th 2023 edition
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