Deadly Heat Waves Are More Frequent In California From mid July
to early August 2006, a heat wave swept through the southwestern
United States. Temperature records were broken at many locations
and unusually high humidity levels for this typically arid
region led to the deaths of more than 600 people, 25,000 cattle
and 70,000 poultry in California alone. An analysis of this
extreme episode carried out by researchers at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, put this heat wave in
the context of six decades of observed heat waves. Their results
suggest that such regional extremes are becoming more and more
likely as climate change trends continue. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
The team, led by climate scientist Alexander Gershunov, examined
meteorological conditions that lead to this and other recorded
heat waves, when temperatures rose into the hottest one percent
of historical summertime daily and nightly temperatures recorded
in California and Nevada since 1948. The scientists found that
heat waves in th