According to a new study, soil moisture on Earth is changing rapidly, which will lead to more intense heat waves in the coming times.
The research in this regard was led by Professor Douglas Marvin of the University of Graz, which was also supported by the University of Reading.
The team found that when global temperatures rise by 2 degrees, extreme heat temperatures could increase by up to 4 degrees in some regions.
The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that the most severe and destructive heat waves that hit Canada in 2021, India in 2022 and the Mediterranean in 2023 could now intensify much more dramatically than normal heat events due to changes in the Earth’s interior.
Reinhard Scheimann, a research scientist at the University of Reading and co-author of the study, said experts already knew that heatwaves generally become more intense as average temperatures rise, but it was previously unclear how more moderate heatwaves suddenly turned into extremely intense ones.
He said a key factor during heatwave events is soil moisture. When soil moisture changes significantly during extreme heatwaves, it can increase or decrease the increase in temperature and can affect regions by causing extreme heatwaves instead of moderate heatwaves.
