Global warming blamed for heat waves

PARIS — The punishing heat experienced around the Mediterranean in July would have been "virtually impossible" in a world without global warming, climate scientists said, as scorching heat claimed more than 20 lives in a single day in Morocco, fanned wildfires in Greece and the Balkans, and strained athletes competing across France in the Summer Olympic Games.

A deadly heat wave brought temperatures well above 40 C to southern Europe and North Africa, where such extreme summer spells are becoming more frequent.

World Weather Attribution, or WWA, a network of scientists who have pioneered peer-reviewed methods for assessing the possible role of climate change in specific extreme events, said this case was clear.