A study published Friday in Science Advances says climate change is slowing heat waves, leaving humans exposed to extreme temperatures for longer periods of time than ever before.
While previous research has found that heat waves are becoming longer, more frequent and more intense due to climate change, the new paper treats heat waves as distinct weather patterns that move with air currents. , just like there are storms.
For every decade between 1979 and 2020, researchers found that heat waves slowed by an average of five miles (eight kilometers) per hour per day.