Nordic countries are relieved after battling an exceptional heat wave which shattered the hopes of foreigners seeking to cool off in the far north — a disappointment meteorologists warn is likely to be repeated.
Tourism has been on the rise in Nordic countries, driven in part by the trend of “coolcations” — where tourists flee the heat of the Mediterranean for milder temperatures in the north — but this year record-breaking temperatures last month dashed tourists’ hopes of escaping the intense heat.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute on Monday in a statement said that the country had just emerged from 22 days of temperatures of more than 30°C — the longest such heat wave since records began in 1961.
Photo: AFP
Last month was also the third-hottest month recorded in Norway since records began in 1901, with temperatures 2.8°C higher than the seasonal average nationwide, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said.
A two-week heat wave, from July 12 to 25, was also the hottest ever recorded in the country.
So-called “tropical nights,” where the temperature does not drop below 20°C, have become commonplace in the region.
The unusually high temperatures have been a shock to tourists seeking to escape the heat elsewhere.
Moussaab El Bacha, a Stockholm resident, spoke about his parent’s surprise when they came over from Morocco to visit.
“They were actually quite surprised by the intensity of the heat here. They had expected a cooler break from the Moroccan summer, but instead it felt like the heat followed them all the way to Sweden,” he said. “It was a bit surreal for them to experience such high temperatures this far north — they kept saying: ‘Are we sure we didn’t just land in southern Spain?’”
In Haparanda, in Sweden’s far north, temperatures reached 25°C or above for 14 consecutive days last month, and in Jokkmokk, the heat wave lasted more than 15 days, something not seen in a century, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) said.
In Rovaniemi, a Finnish town north of the Arctic Circle which bills itself as the hometown of Santa Claus, temperatures reached more than 30°C last week.
The municipality of Joensuu in southeastern Finland opened an ice rink for people to cool off in, to reduce pressure on local healthcare services, North Karelia’s regional healthcare services head Mikael Ripatti said.
Ripatti said emergency rooms had become overcrowded as people sought care for heat-related health issues.
“The aim was to provide a place to go if it was too hot at home,” Ripatti said.
Other cities opened up similar cooling facilities to the public, with a shop in Helsinki letting people lie down next to its cooling shelves.
The arctic is heating far faster than other parts of the planet. Of the continents overall, Europe has seen the fastest warming per decade since 1990, followed closely by Asia, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data showed.
“The length of the period and the high temperatures throughout the day in all parts of the country were very unusual this time,” Ketil Isaksen, a climate researcher with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, said in a statement. “This type of heat wave has become more likely with climate change.”
Scientists say recurring heat waves are a marker of global warming, and are expected to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
“There have been heat waves in the past and there will continue to be heat waves in the future,” said Hannele Korhonen, a research professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
As climate change drives up global temperatures, we are “exceeding the heat wave threshold more often, and the heat waves are hotter,” she added.
“An in-depth attribution study would be necessary to pinpoint or assess the role of climate change in the prolonged heat wave [that struck] northern Sweden,” said Sverker Hellstrom, a meteorologist at the SMHI.
However, “the frequency of such weather events has increased and may continue to rise in the future,” he added.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS