2003 Likely Europe's Hottest in 500 Years
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By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was
the hottest on the continent in at least five centuries, according to
researchers who analyzed old records, soil cores and other evidence.
More than 19,000 people died.
Researchers at the University of Bern, Switzerland, collected and
analyzed temperature data from all over Europe, including such climate
measures as tree rings from 1500. They found that the climate has been
generally warming and last summer was the most torrid of all.
"When you consider Europe as a whole, it was by far the hottest," said
Jurg Luterbacher, climatologist and the first author of a study appearing
this week in the journal Science.
Luterbacher said the study showed that European winters are also
warmer now. The average winter and annual temperatures during the
three decades from 1973 to 2002 were the warmest of the half
millennium, he said.
Some studies have linked rising average temperatures in North America
and elsewhere to global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels,
but Luterbacher said his team did not attempt to make such a
connection.
"We don't make any analysis of the human influence," he said. "We
don't attempt to determine the cause. We only report what we find."
Other climatologists, however, say the new study agrees with models
that have predicted a steady rise in global temperature as the result of
greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from the burning of
fossil fuels and other sources.
Stephen Schneider, a climate expert at Stanford University and a
prominent advocate for the theory of human-caused global warming, said
the Luterbacher paper is consistent with what climate modelers have
been predicting for 20 years.
"The data is starting to line up showing that those projections were
correct," Schneider said. "We warned the world that this was likely to
happen because we believed the theory, but couldn't actually prove it
was happening. Now the data is coming in."
In the study, Luterbacher and his team analyzed the temperature history
of Europe starting in 1500 to the present. For the earliest part of the half
millennium, the figures are estimates based on proxy measures, such
as tree rings and soil cores. But after about 1750, he said, instrumented
readings became generally available throughout Europe.
During the 500 years, there were trends both toward cool and toward hot.
The second hottest summer in the period was in 1757. That was followed
by a cooling trend that continued until early in the 20th century. The
summer of 1902, for instance, was the coolest of the entire record.
Starting in 1977, the record shows "an exceptionally strong,
unprecedented warming," the researchers report, with average
temperatures rising at the rate of about 0.36 degrees per decade.
Then came last summer.
"The summer of 2003 exceeded 1901 to 1995 European summer
temperatures by around 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)," the
study said. "Taking into account the uncertainties (in the study method),
it appears that the summer of 2003 was very likely warmer than any
other summer back to 1500."
Record temperatures were recorded in most of the major cities of Europe
last summer, with many readings over 100 degrees. Authorities have
attributed thousands of deaths to the excess heat, making the heat wave
one of the deadliest weather phenomena in the past century.
In France, the toll was estimated at about 14,802 dead. About 2,000
more than normal died in August in England and Wales. On Aug. 11,
Britain's hottest day on record, there were 363 more deaths than average
and the temperature reading reached 101.3 in Brogdale in southeastern
England.
Altogether in Europe, based on official numbers collected by The
Associated Press, there were more than 19,000 excess deaths in the
summer months. France was hardest hit, but the average number of
summer deaths increased by 4,175 in Italy, 1,300 in Portugal and more
than 1,000 in the Netherlands.
The intense heat also wilted crops, caused wildfires and continued a
centurylong trend of melting the continent's glaciers.
Luterbacher said some mountain glaciers have shrunk by 50 percent
in the past century in Europe, and some ice fields lost 10 percent of
their mass last summer alone.
In addition, he said, the long trend of warming temperatures is now
melting the high altitude permafrost — the soil that usually remains
frozen year-round — and that some buildings, bridges and roadways
are now threatened with unstable foundations.
And it may get worse, said Luterbacher. He said some studies
forecast that if the warming trend continues, Europe may have
summers like 2003 every other year starting late in this century. |
