Heat records are outpacing cold records

Heat records are far outpacing cold records across the globe so far this year.

It comes as the US and Europe brace for a wave of dangerously high temperatures.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, around the world, 188 all-time heat records have been broken so far in 2022. Compared with just 18 cold records.

A climate scientist at Princeton University says the hot-and-cold record imbalance is a signal of global warming.

Studies have shown extreme heat will increase in frequency, intensity, and duration because of global warming and that extremes will occur more frequently on the hot-side compared to cold.

In the US, more than 40 million people were under heat warnings and advisories on Monday from North Dakota to Texas, where high temperatures were expected to climb into the 90s and 100s. Dozens of temperature records could be broken through the week, forecasters warned.

Global scientists last year concluded that with every fraction of a degree of warming, the effects of the climate crisis worsen. While extreme heat events would still occur without climate change, the increasing intensity and frequency of these events in recent decades has been linked to the rise of fossil fuel emissions and observed global warming.