Periods of extreme heat are becoming more frequent, intense and longer-lasting as climate change warms the planet, the U.N. weather agency said on Tuesday, noting changes since the famously hot European summer of 1976. Parts of Europe are enduring their fifth heatwave of a summer marked by drought, wildfires and record-breaking temperatures.
"Extreme heat is becoming more frequent, more intense, it's lasting longer, and covering much wider areas than in the cooler climates of the past," John Kennedy, the World Meteorological Organization's head of climate information, told a press briefing in Geneva.
