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The heat wave in Europe that you have seen is not just a story of a distant country.

Every year, an unexpected heat wave continues around the globe, and we never know when it will be our turn. 



Reporter Gu-hee Jung explains why you see it that way.



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This is a data comparing the current temperature around the world with the average year data.



Western Europe, such as the UK and France, is marked in dark red.



This means that the temperature is about 10 degrees higher than normal.



The reason is the low pressure that stays in the Atlantic Ocean.



Low pressure turns the air counterclockwise, pumping hot air from Africa into Western Europe.



This low pressure is not going anywhere else right now.



This is due to the presence of two huge anticyclones in the east of England.



It is called 'blocking high pressure' because the airflow in Europe is completely blocked, and because of this high pressure, the low pressure cannot escape and the heat continues.



In the United States, a blocking high pressure is also in the eastern part of the country, so the heat wave continues in the western part.


Enlarging an image

There is also this blocking high pressure around Korea.



It is unusually located at the top, and you can see the rainy season front below it and the high pressure in the North Pacific Ocean below.



This blocking high pressure is blocking the northward movement of the high pressure in the North Pacific Ocean, which causes the midsummer heat wave.



This is similar to last year when the rainy season was severe.



So, the heat is less recently, and the rainy season is not over.



Climate change is also fueling this phenomenon.



The larger the temperature difference between the poles and the mid-latitudes, the stronger the wind between the two regions and the less likely it is to form a blocking anticyclone that stays in place.



However, as the temperature difference between the poles and mid-latitudes decreases due to warming, more blocking high pressure is created, and global weather is predicted to become more and more extreme.



(Video Edit: Kim Byung-jik, Source: Climate Change Research Institute, University of Maine, USA)



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