Extreme heat, what is driving world breaking heat temperatures this past week?

The world has seen global temperatures rise to record breaking highs this past week. It is the opinion of some that climate change is linked to the heat waves we’ve experienced, however there is also a link between wildfires and a rise in temperatures. Let’s explore the direct link between the Canadian wildfires that spread at the end of May through early June of 2023 and the recent heat waves.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency “Beyond the human and societal

impacts, wildfires also affect the Earth’s climate. Forests in particular store large amounts of carbon.

When they burn, they immediately release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn contributes

to climate change.”

https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires#:~:text=Beyond%20the%20

human%20and%20societal,turn%20contributes%20to%20climate%20change.

The wildfires that have ravaged across Canada emitted a record breaking amount of carbon dioxide into

the air in the first 6 months of 2023. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported;

hundreds of forest fires since early May have generated nearly 160m tonnes of carbon, which is

equivalent to nearly 600m tonnes of carbon dioxide. More than half of that carbon pollution went into the

air in June, 2023 alone. The emissions from these wildfires are now the largest annual emissions for

Canada in the 21 years of CAMS dataset.

WHERE DID THE CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE TRAVEL?

The Canadian Wildfire smoke has traveled along the jet stream from West to East. The National Weather Service said winds were continuing to bring smoke from the fires into the U.S. causing "moderate" to "unhealthy" air quality across the U.S. Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley and Midwest.

Trajectory of wind June 8, 2023.

The smoke reached western parts of Europe on Monday June 26, 2023 as the smog traveled across the

Atlantic Ocean via the jet stream- a fast flowing air current in the earth’s atmosphere.

THE RECORD BREAKING HEAT WAVE…

Earth’s average temperature hit an all time record high on July 3, 2023 and subsequently broke that

record for the two following consecutive days, with July 4th being the world’s hottest day ever recorded.

The global average on July 3 reached a record 62.62 degrees Fahrenheit (17.01 degrees Celsius) and

then surpassed that on July 4, climbing to 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17.23 degrees Celsius) and

sustaining that temp. through Thursday.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that June 2023 exceeded June

2019’s record temperature “by a substantial margin". “Parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia

and eastern Australia were significantly warmer than normal,” the service wrote in a statement.

This map by Metro News, shows the global heat wave that started July 3rd 2023.

To conclude, based on the facts presented, the areas mostly affected by the heat wave were also the regions where the smog from the Canadian wildfire spread. It’s our hypothesis that the unusually high temperatures we experienced this past week had a correlation with the world breaking carbon dioxide emissions that went up in the air from the Canadian wildfires that spread in late May early June 2023. Since we now have a high amount of carbon dioxide concentrated in these regions, which directly contribute to climate change, we should prepare to experience higher than average temperatures across the globe after the wildfire crisis we have observed.