U.S., European heat waves 'virtually impossible' without climate change, study finds

Tens of millions of Americans — including residents in Phoenix, where a billboard displays a temperature of 118 degrees last week — have been living under extreme heat warnings or advisories during the last few weeks. A new study finds climate change is making heat waves more common. (Patrick T. Fallon /AFP via Getty Images)

The life-threatening heat waves that have baked U.S. cities and inflamed European wildfires in recent weeks would be "virtually impossible" without the influence of human-caused climate change, a team of international researchers said Tuesday. Global warming, they said, also made China's recent record-setting heat wave 50 times more likely.

Soaring temperatures are punishing the Northern Hemisphere this summer. In the U.S., more than 2,000 high temperature records have been broken in the past 30 days, according to federal data. In Southern Europe, an observatory in Palermo, Sicily, which has kept temperature records on the Mediterranean coast since 1791, hit 117 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, shattering its previous recorded high. And in China, a small northwest town recently recorded the hottest temperature in the country's history.