Extreme heat taking toll on people worldwide, WMO warns

GENEVA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned that extreme heat is impacting millions of people around the world, with wildfires and poor air quality compounding the problem, highlighting the importance of early warning and heat-health action plans.

WMO issued a bulletin on Thursday, stating that data from its members show increasingly frequent global heatwaves and record-breaking temperatures in many regions.

According to the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2025 was the third-warmest July globally (after July 2023 and July 2024). The average sea surface temperature was also the third highest on record. Arctic sea ice extent ranked joint second-lowest for July in the 47-year satellite record, virtually tied with 2012 and 2021.

In July, within Europe, heatwave conditions particularly affected Sweden and Finland, which experienced an unusually long spell of temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. Southeast Europe also faced heatwaves and wildfire activity.

The bulletin stated that in the past week, maximum temperatures exceeded 42 degrees Celsius in parts of West Asia, southern Central Asia, most of North Africa, southern Pakistan, and southwestern United States, with localized areas surpassing 45 degrees Celsius.

Maximum temperatures in southwestern Iran and eastern Iraq locally exceeded 50 degrees Celsius, leading to disruptions of electricity and water supplies, education and labour. Forecasts indicate that the heatwaves are expected to continue to ravage these regions in the next week.

"Typically, during the summer, the combination of extreme heat at the near-surface and cold air aloft might lead to subsequent extreme rainfall and devastating flash floods over high topography, affecting further people's lives," said Omar Baddour, chief of climate monitoring at WMO.

WMO also noted that the extreme heat has fueled devastating wildfires, causing casualties and worsening air quality. Wildfires in Cyprus, Greece, and Türkiye forced people to flee their homes and resulted in multiple deaths. In late July and early August, hundreds of wildfires in Canada worsened air quality across multiple provinces and parts of the United States.

WMO said that it and its members are committed to bolstering heat early warning systems and are working with partners at all levels to advance heat-health action plan. ■