STUDY: Extreme Heat Waves NOT Taking Place More Frequently…

LOS ANGELES — The Pacific Northwest heat wave of 2021 brought boiling temperatures of more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. While many may see this as a sign of the times, are these extreme events really occurring more often due to climate change? A new study concludes that while we continue to see the very real and threatening effects of a warming planet, fortunately heat waves of this level are occurring no faster than climate change models already predicted.A team from UCLA says climate change may be influencing how hot temperatures get each summer, but record-breaking events like the heat wave of 2021 are not so extreme that they can’t be predicted by climate change simulations. In fact, researchers say the Pacific Northwest heat wave is roughly a once-in-10,000-years­­ type of event.
“It was outrageous how extreme and severe that heat wave was,” says Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor o …