European Heat Waves Last Twice as Long As In 1880

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Heat waves in Europe have doubled and the frequency of extremely hot days has nearly tripled in the past century. The new data show that many previous assessments of daily summer temperature change underestimated heat wave events by 30 percent. The results are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. “These findings provide observational support to climate modeling studies showing that European summer temperatures are particularly sensitive to global warming,” said Paul Della-Marta of the University of Bern in Switzerland. “Due to complex reactions between the summer atmosphere and the land, the variability of summer temperatures is expected to increase substantially by 2100.” JULIA WHITTY

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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