Scientists warn - prepare for deadly heat

Extreme weather

Scientists: Get ready for years of deadly heat

Nora Fernstedt

Published 2025-05-28 23.48

Warming is happening fast. Photo: Matt York / AP

Deadly heat, hurricanes and devastation.

Within just five years, it could be a reality.

Scientists are now warning.

Global warming, mainly caused by human burning of fossil fuels, continues.

And it is happening fast.

The global weather organization WMO and the UK's national weather service Met Office released their five-year forecast on Wednesday. According to it, there is an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years, including 2025, will be a record-breaking year.

There is an 86 percent chance that at least one of the years will be at least 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times – and a 70 percent chance that the entire period will be.

Warns of 2-degree limit

Richard Betts, head of climate research at the British Met Office, paints a picture of what this will mean.

– More people than ever will be exposed to severe heat waves. This will lead to more deaths and serious health effects if people cannot be better protected against the effects of the heat. We can also expect more serious forest fires as the warmer atmosphere dries out the landscapes, he tells AP.

An increasingly warm atmosphere dries out the landscapes. Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT

It also leads to different forms of extreme weather becoming more common and more intense: such as hurricanes, rain and dry periods.

– Higher global average temperatures lead to more lost lives, says climate scientist Nathalie Mahowald.

For the first time, there is also a small risk that the world's annual temperature will increase by 2 degrees.

– It's not something anyone wants to see, but it's what science tells us, Leon Hermanson at the British Met Office tells the AP.

Devastating fires in Los Angeles in January. More fires are expected according to scientists. Photo: Stephen Lam / AP

1.5 degrees still possible

The Paris Agreement's goal is to keep global warming below 2 degrees, preferably 1.5 degrees.

But the WMO emphasizes that hope for the 1.5-degree target is still alive. This is because the target is based on a 20-year average.

There is a risk that we have already entered that period – but it will take a few years to determine.

Wet in Europe

The ice in the Arctic will continue to warm faster than the rest of the world. There, scientists expect an average temperature of 2.4 degrees warmer – something that will hit the sea ice hard.

And what does the forecast mean for Sweden?

Grapevines in the Cognac region in spring 2021. Photo: Yohan Bonnet / AP

Wetter summers.

– You shouldn't see it as if it will rain more in Sweden within five years, it's quite uncertain. But the five-year forecast is an overall indication that it will be wetter, says Anna Rutgersson, professor of meteorology at Uppsala University, to TT.