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Climate change makes Seville so hot that it’s starting to name heatwaves like hurricanes


The City of Seville is trying something new to raise awareness about climate change and save lives. With sweltering heat waves becoming a fact of life in Europe and other parts of the world, the Spanish capital has begun to make a name for them. The first, Zoe, arrives this week, bringing with it an expected daytime high of over 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 43 degrees Celsius).

Like As it turns out, there is no scientific definition of a heat wave. Most countries use the term to describe periods of time when temperatures are above historical and seasonal standards for a particular area. Seville’s new system categorizes those events into three levels, with names dedicated to the most serious events and the city’s escalating response attached to each level. The city will designate future heat waves in reverse alphabetical order, with Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vega following suit.

It’s a system similar to what organizations like the US National Hurricane Center have used for decades to raise awareness of impending tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. The idea is that people are more likely to take a threat seriously and act accordingly when it is named.

Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the team that helped develop Seville’s system, says . Naming heat waves may also help some people realize that we don’t have to deal with the occasional “weird” weather phenomena: they are A byproduct of a warming planet.

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