Israeli heatwaves are going to keep getting worse - study

Heat waves in Israel result in about 30 deaths on average every year – but with the predicted increase in intensity and duration, researchers believe this number could rise to 330 deaths annually.

With these findings, the researchers are advocating for collaboration between academia and policymakers to enhance the monitoring and management of extreme weather events to keep people safe.

Dr. Assaf Hochman, a senior climatologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University (HU) of Jerusalem led a collaborative study with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (the only German university of excellence with a national large-scale research sector) that predicted an unprecedented increase in duration, frequency and severity of heatwaves here and in the whole eastern Mediterranean.  

They said the region will experience a sevenfold increase in the number of extreme heat waves by the end of the 21st century and a threefold increase in the duration of these events. The results were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment under the title “More frequent, persistent and deadly heat waves in the 21st century over the Eastern Mediterranean.” 

Heat waves will last the duration of the summer

The authors predicted that the duration of heat waves will last through the Israeli summer season in the next few years.

“The symptoms of global warming are felt around the world, and with the Mediterranean region a ‘climate change hotspot,’ Israelis are at heightened risk,” said Hochman.

The Earth has warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution began, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and storms. Research has shown that the leading cause of this is climate change, where the general assumption is that human activity significantly increases the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Heat waves pose an increasing threat to society in the Eastern Mediterranean region. 

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