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heatwavelatest news & developments
In recent years, research Wright and colleagues led has highlighted how prolonged heat exposure places outdoor workers, children, older people and low-income communities at increased risk of dehydration, heat stress, respiratory illness and other adverse health outcomes. The risks are expected to intensify as temperatures continue to rise. (Envato Elements)

Extreme heat is becoming Southern Africa’s defining climate and health threat, report warns

Extreme heat is no longer a future problem. A major new report warns it is intensifying inequality, illness and climate vulnerability across Southern Africa and the worst-hit are…

The El Niño-induced drought and heatwave in February and March hit crops hard in Southern Africa. (Conrad Bornman/Gallo Images)

South Africa won’t be able to meet regional demand for white maize

The El Niño-induced drought and heatwave in February and March hit crops hard in Southern Africa

A general view of containers that fell over at a container storage facility following heavy rains and winds in Durban, on April 12, 2022. (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP)
Video

VIDEO: Five climate impacts

Climate change is already having an impact in southern Africa

One expert says the outages are a wake-up call for how water is managed in the country’s economic hub. (Delwyn Verasamy)

Gauteng water shortages: A perfect storm ‘turning into a hurricane’

Another says the outages are a wake-up call for how water is managed in the country’s economic hub

GUADALAJARA, SPAIN – 2022/07/19: A helicopter works to extinguish a wildfire near Valdepeñas de la Sierra, where several fires have forced to evacuate nearly 100 residents from the area. Wildfires have broken out across Spain amid a severe heatwave. (Photo by Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Europe counts cost of heatwave as Spain PM says more than 500 died

Climate change protesters said the scorching weather should be a wake-up call for the continent

The current heatwave in the UK is making it impossible to play or watch the game. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Welcome to no future for cricket

The current heatwave in the UK is making it impossible to play or watch the game

Wild west: A helicopter prepares to make a water drop as smoke billows along the Fraser River Valley near Lytton in Canada during the recent heatwave. (James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Climate crisis drives extreme heat in North America

The chance of temperatures in the Pacific Northwest region coming close to 50°C has increased at least 150-fold since the end of the 19th century

A man wipes perspiration from his head in Tokyo on July 24, 2018, as Japan suffers from a heatwave. – An “unprecedented” heatwave in Japan has killed at least 65 people in one week, government officials said on July 24, with the weather agency now classifying the record-breaking weather as a “natural disaster.” (Martin BUREAU / AFP)

The first undeniable climate change deaths

In Japan, in 2018, more than 1 000 people died during an unprecedented heat wave. In 2019, scientists proved it would have been impossible without global warming

A man uses a fan as he walks on a street in Tokyo, Japan, July 17 2018. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Japan heatwave kills over a dozen, thousands rushed to hospital

The education ministry has told schools to postpone outdoor activities on hot days

Last month was the hottest January in recorded history

January 2016 has continued a trend of rapid global warming, setting the record for the hottest first month of the year in the history books.

An aerial view shows people relaxing on a beach on the shores of the Silbersee lake on a hot summer day in Haltern

Ice cream for primates, blackouts for humans as Europe feels the heat

A blistering heatwave sweeping through Europe brought blackouts to France, but meant a range of ice creams for the continent’s zoo animals.

A young boy drinks water from a roadside tap near Sangam in Allahabad

India heatwave deaths pass 1 000

More than 1 100 people have died in a major heatwave sweeping India, with temperatures nearing 50°C in some areas.

Australia battles hundreds of wildfires in searing heatwave

Australian fire crews have been battling hundreds of wildfires and powerful, hot outback winds forcing hundreds to be evacuated out of their homes.