Heat stress escalates in cities under global warming

The study's authors used computer models to simulate

a

with unprecedented detail the temperature changes through the mid-21st century in Belgian cities. They found that heatwaves become hotter, longer and more frequent because of greenhouse gas emissions, and that temperature above the heat stress alarm level increases by a factor of between 1.4 and 15 by the middle of this century.

"The trends are very harmful to an increasing share of people living in the cities, since hot temperatures lead to excessive mortalities, hospital admissions, energy usage and economic loss, which are exacerbated by the urban heat island," said Hendrik Wouters, of Belgium's Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Ghent University.

More deaths from future heat waves could make heat waves the most deadly type of natural disaster in the near future, he added. Wouters is the lead author of the study which appears in Geophysical Research Letters.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-stress-escalates-cities-global.html#jCp