A sweltering Siberian heatwave -that led to record high Arctic temperature of 38C -would have been “effectively impossible” without climate change, scientists have insisted.
The region has been hit with unprecedented and unusually hot conditions so far this year.
The mercury hit record highs in June when 38C was recorded in Verkhoyansk, Russia.
An evaluation of the rocketing temperatures since January found the persistent heat over the region was 600 times more likely to take place because of human activity impacting global warming.
The World Weather Attribution study has given the strongest evidence yet that extreme weather events are connected to climate change.
Lead author Andrew Ciavarella, from the Met Office, said: "Heatwaves and high temperatures occur naturally and human influence has a hand in changing the odds of just how warm they will be when they come along, and also how frequently they come along.
“We found the regional temperatures experienced over the six months to June 2020 have been made at least 600 times more likely to occur as a result of human-induced climate change and would have been effectively impossible without human influences."
