The temperatures experienced in Dublin on July 18, were used by environmental activist Greta Thunberg to illustrate the impact the climate crisis is currently having on Western Europe.
Yesterday Ireland experienced the highest temperature in 135 years, with temperatures reaching 33C in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Monday afternoon, 12.8 degrees above average for the weather station at this time of year. Setting a national all-time July month heat record and marking the hottest day in both the 19th & 20th centuries.
The extreme heat registered in the Phoenix Park was used by environmental activist Greta Thunberg, to illustrate the impact the climate crisis is having on Western Europe.
This is not “the new normal”. The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritise profit and greed over people and planet. We are still sleepwalking towards the edge. https://t.co/BNp35yU8lS
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 19, 2022
Sharing a map listing the temperatures recorded in parts of Europe on July 18th, Thunberg wrote, “This is not “the new normal”. The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritise profit and greed over people and planet. We are still sleepwalking towards the edge,” adding in a subsequent tweet “be careful, stay hydrated and keep cool. Listen to experts and heed public advice and recommendations.”
The image shared shows a snapshot of some of the extreme temperatures reached in Western Europe, including names of towns and cities typically associated with a temperate climate, Scotland’s Aboyne hitting 31.3C, Santon Downham in England reaching 38.1C, Hawarden in Wales 37.1C.
Phoenix Park has now provisionally reached 32.5°C (12.3°C above its normal), which is Ireland’s joint 2nd highest on record, the highest temperature of the 21st Century so far and Dublin’s all time highest temperature. Previous Dublin record was 31.0°C in July 2006 at Casement. pic.twitter.com/E8hcUUrJ6K
— Climate Services @ Met Éireann (@METclimate) July 18, 2022
That’s aside from the shockingly high temperatures seen in parts of France, not including the devastating wildfires in Spain, the evacuations in Portugal and the droughts in Northern Italy.
Meteorologist Scott Duncan who first distributed the image added that it has been “shocking to watch the heat emergency unfold”.
“We have not seen anything like it. We can’t compare this looming heat emergency to summer 1976. A warmer world, thanks to human induced climate change, makes it almost effortless to break extreme heat thresholds. We continue to see this across the planet – not just in Europe,” Duncan wrote on July 17.
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