Climate Change Responsible For West Coast Heat Wave, Record Temps

A record-breaking heat wave that likely contributed to hundreds of deaths on the West Coast would not have been possible without the influence of human-caused climate change, a new analysis claims.

The crippling heat wave, which prompted temperatures to peak at nearly 116 degrees in Portland, Oregon, was so rare that there was only a 0.1 percent chance of such an event occurring, according to the analysis conducted by the World Weather Attribution.

Should global temperatures rise another 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit, similar heat waves won't be so rare, researchers concluded. In fact, the chances of such a severe heat wave occurring somewhere in the world would increase to as much as 20 percent in a given year.

The rapid study, which took a little more than a week, is not yet peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

Read more via The New York Times

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