As climate change accelerates, it seems that like a post modern Sysyphus I will have to document stronger and stronger heatwaves occurring earlier and earlier.
Let us have a look this week at what is taking place right now around the world of extreme weather events. First and foremost, the US are suffering from the worst drought in decades according to CNN :
Drought in the continental United States has expanded to its record-highest level for spring, and it’s fueling wildfire and water shortage concerns as the summer’s drying heat fast approaches.
Varying levels of drought covered 62.78% of the country as of April 21, with the worst of it centered on much of the South, West and Plains. Put another way, dryness in the Lower 48 states has never been this expansive in spring in the history of the US Drought Monitor, which has data back to 2000.
The map below – provided by U.S. Drought Monitor on May 7, 2026, via Virginia Tech – show the extent of this massive phenomenon :
South of the border, the situation is equally dire in Latin America and the Caribbean as the UN explains.
Meanwhile, in South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), temps are already nearing 50 C / 122 F putting over a billion people at risk from heat strokes. As Al Jazeera wrote :
A record-breaking, deadly heatwave sweeping South Asia has pushed temperatures to dangerous highs, disrupting daily life for hundreds of millions and raising new concerns about the vulnerability of one of the world’s most densely populated regions.
Countries including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have seen temperatures soar well above seasonal averages, with some areas approaching or exceeding 45-50 degrees Celsius (113-122 degrees Fahrenheit).
Europe is also currently facing a heat dome, never seen before both in terms of intensity and precocity. Temperatures above 30 and even 35 C (86-95 F) are being recorded right now from Spain and Portugal to Germany and the UK. As Euronews stated :
Forecasters over at Severe Weather Europe warn that temperatures are soaring by 12-16°C above “long-term climatological norms” as greenhouse gases continue to fry the planet.
Southern and southwestern regions including Portugal, Spain and France are set to swelter under daytime highs of 38°C, with huge parts of France being placed under a moderate high temperature warning. Northern countries such as Germany and the UK are witnessing maximum temperatures exceeding 30°C.
France’s Météo-France weather agency blames a “heat dome” for the unusually high temperatures, with Severe Weather Europe agreeing that a “highly anomalous and powerful heat dome” has parked over Western and Central Europe.
And this might be just the beginning as a “super” El Nino event could take place and lead to even more record heat later this year or even in 2027.
Each month, each year we collectively fail to address climate change and the hegemony of fossil fuels in our energy systems is a tragedy. We are already paying dearly our hubris. I don’t even want to imagine how hot spring will become in ten or 20 years, let alone in half a century. Maybe we should be acting on this ?
Image credits : Dr Serge Zaka on Linkedin for the map and Nicolas Houdayer on Unsplash for the dry soil.
