Coastal communities need to prepare for simultaneous extreme weather events as heat waves increasingly overlap with surges in sea levels due to climate change, a study published on Thursday warned. Extreme heat and sea levels are typically monitored and studied individually but researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University found they were occurring simultaneously - a phenomenon that could multiply fivefold by mid-century. The study's lead author, Mo Zhao, told AFP these events pose "very dangerous" risks, from deadly heat to floods, that may "exceed the coping capacity" of communities to respond. "We don't have sufficient resources or sufficient human resources to handle these two extremes," she said. Previous studies have shown that heat contributes to storm systems like tropical cyclones that bring surging sea levels, said Shuo Wang, co-author and assistant professor of hydroclimatic extremes. But the study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment found that high temperatures not only precede storms but persist through them, leaving communities battered by two extremes at once. Already, global coastal areas have seen these combined events occur an average of 3.7 days more per year between 1998 and 2017 compared to the previous two decades. The study projected these events would increase by an average of 31 more days per year by 2049 under a worst-case scenario if planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. Tropical regions such as southeast Asia, West Africa and eastern parts of South America would see the greatest increases. With 40 percent of the world's population living in the tropics, the study said billions of people were facing the potentially deadly consequences. And the solution is not as simple as air conditioning. Cooling systems are not common in households in poorer countries, the study noted. Meanwhile, richer countries that do have... |