Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change

Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate

1 Warmer
Discuss your answers to the questions.

1. Describe the most recent summer where you are. What has the weather been like?
2. Do you think that summers have changed since you were a child?

2 Key words
Match the key words with the definitions. Then, find them in the article to read them in context. The
paragraph numbers will help you.

common increasing extreme likely reducing heatwave

1. a continuous period of very hot weather _____________________________ (para 1)

2. probably going to happen or probably true ___________________________ (para 1)

3. becoming larger in amount or number ___________________________ (para 2)

4. happening frequently and often ___________________________ (para 3)

5. much more severe or serious than usual ___________________________ (para 4)

6. making something smaller or less ___________________________ (para 4)

devastated greenhouse gases averages scorching pattern serious

7. gases that stop heat from escaping from the atmosphere and cause the temperature of the Earth to increase
___________________________ (para 4)

8. extremely hot ___________________________ (para 8)

9. amounts that are calculated by adding several numbers together and dividing the total by the original number
of things you added together ___________________________ (para 9)

10. bad or dangerous enough to make you worried ___________________________ (para 12)

11. a series of events that together show how things normally happen ___________________________ (para 13)

12. seriously damaged or destroyed something ___________________________ (para 14)

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NEWS LESSONS / Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
Heatwave made more than twice as
likely by climate change, scientists find
Damian Carrington
27 July, 2018
1 The 2018 summer heatwave in northern Europe
was more than twice as likely because of climate
change, say scientists.
2 They say climate change is clearly happening.
For many years, scientists have said that global
warming is increasing the number and the
strength of heatwaves. They say that by the
2040s, we will have even worse heatwaves every
other year.
3 “The world is becoming warmer and so
heatwaves like this are becoming more common,”
said Friederike Otto, at the University of Oxford
and part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA)
group that did the work.
4 “Unusually warm weather will become common,”
she said. “This is something that people can and
should prepare for. But we can slow down the
increase in extreme weather events by reducing
greenhouse gases as much as possible.”
5 The new analysis compares extreme weather
with weather from the past and with computer
models of how our climate would be without
climate change. This way, researchers can find
how much global warming is increasing the risk of
dangerous weather.
6 The researchers analysed records of the hottest
three-day period in seven places in northern
Europe, from Ireland to the Netherlands
to Scandinavia.
7 “We found that in the far north, in the Arctic
Circle, the 2018 heatwave is extraordinary – we
have never seen this before in history,” said Geert
Jan van Oldenborgh, at the Royal Netherlands
Meteorological Institute and also part of WWA.
8 Across northern Europe, the group found global
warming more than doubled the risk of scorching
temperatures. “It is amazing that we can now see
the changes at a local level,” he said.
© Springer Nature Limited 2018. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
NEWS LESSONS / Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
9 “Most heatwave studies have used large-scale
averages – for example, looking at temperatures
across the whole of Europe,” said Otto. “In this
study, we have looked at individual locations,
where people live, to show the heatwave people
have actually been experiencing.”
10 In the past, similar analyses have shown very
strong connections between climate change and
extreme weather events. The scorching summer
in New South Wales, Australia, in 2016–17 was
made at least 50 times more likely by global
warming. This means it can be “linked directly to
climate change”, said the scientists.
11 The “Lucifer” heatwave across Europe’s
Mediterranean countries in summer 2017 was
made at least ten times more likely by climate
change. The large amount of rain in the US
brought by Hurricane Harvey, also in 2017, was
made three times more likely by climate change.
12 Serious climate change is happening before our
eyes, said Professor Rowan Sutton, director of
climate research at the University of Reading.
“No one should be surprised that we have very
serious heatwaves and other weather events in
many parts of the world.”
13 The fact that the heatwave happened in such a
large area, across four continents, shows that
global warming is responsible, said Professor
Peter Stott, a weather scientist: “That pattern
is something we wouldn’t see without
climate change.”
14 During the 2018 heatwave across northern
Europe, there were wildfires in the Arctic Circle
and a long period of heat across the UK and the
European continent. In the south, fires
have devastated parts of Greece, with many
people killed.
15 The first six months of the 2018 were the hottest
recorded for any year without an El Niño event, a
natural climate cycle that raises temperatures.
© Guardian News and Media 2018
First published in The Guardian, 27/07/18
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Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
3 Comprehension check
Choose the best answer to each question.
1. What did the study compare?
a. the temperatures at seven locations in northern Europe
b. the temperatures across all of northern Europe
c. the temperatures across the world for three days

2. What was the extreme weather of 2018 compared with in the study?
a. computer models of how the climate would be without climate change
b. temperature measurements from the past
c. both a and b

3. In the future, how often do the scientists believe we will get heatwaves like the one in 2018?
a. every summer
b. three times more often than now
c. every two years

4. What do they say we must do?

a. be prepared to fight wildfires
b. restrict our greenhouse gases as much as possible
c. keep a record of the temperatures where we live

5. What have other similar analyses shown?

a. that extreme weather happens mostly in Australia
b. that we are getting more extreme weather because of climate change
c. that climate change is not really happening

6. How far did the 2018 heatwave reach?

a. everywhere in Europe except for Greece
b. nearly up to the Arctic Circle
c. across four continents

4 A useful structure
a. Find the phrase every other year in the text and underline it.
b. Which pattern shows ‘every other year’?
1. 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021
2. 2018 / 2020 / 2022 / 2024
3. 2018 / 2028 / 2038 / 2048
c. Talk about something that you do every other day, week, month or year.
E.g. I go swimming with my children every other week.
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NEWS LESSONS / Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
5 Discussion
Talk about an extreme or dangerous weather situation that you have experienced.

The hottest / coldest

When I was …, it
temperature I’ve ever
was so … that ...
experienced was …

6 Video explainer
Watch the one-minute ‘video explainer’ that comes with the article:
www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/27/heatwave-made-more-than-twice-as-likely-by-climate-
change-scientists-find

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NEWS LESSONS / Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
KEY

2 Key words 3 Comprehension check

1. heatwave 1. a
2. likely 2. c
3. increasing 3. c
4. common 4. b
5. extreme 5. b
6. reducing 6. c
7. greenhouse gases
8. scorching
9. averages 4 A useful structure
10. serious
11. pattern b. 2
12. devastated

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NEWS LESSONS / Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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