AAn attribution study this week confirmed the link between the climate crisis and the intense heatwave that hit the Gulf of Guinea this year, with the heat index reaching 50°C (122°F) at times. What is the best way to deal with such high temperatures?
Tarly, a 52-year-old carpenter, has seen his colleagues faint from the heat in his home suburb of Abobo in Ivory Coast in recent months. “The first thing I do when I wake up is take a shower. But when I arrive at the gbakka (a popular city minibus), I’m already sweating, and it continues until the afternoon.
Although he doesn’t have “relaxation breaks” at work, he says his colleagues occasionally stop for coffee or tea.
This year, West Africa was hit by a scorching heatwave, with the most intense heat occurring from February 11 to 15, with temperatures peaking above 40°C and averaging 36°C.
The humidity was also high, making it harder for people to cool down by sweating. The heat index, a measure combining temperature and humidity to reflect the feeling of heat, reached 50°C. “It’s very dangerous for the human body,” said Izidine Pinto, a researcher in extreme weather and climate at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
Wasiu Adeniyi Ibrahim, head of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, said: “The February heatwave occurred early in the year, meaning many people would not have been acclimatized to the heat. With every fraction of a degree of global warming, heat waves like this will get even hotter. »
Globally, last month was the hottest February on record, the ninth consecutive month that such a record has been broken. Carbon emissions, which continue to increase, and the return of El Niño have led to high temperatures.
Meteorological agencies in Nigeria and Ghana issued warnings about high temperatures, but many other affected countries did not prepare for dangerous heat.
Maja Vahlberg, risk consultant at the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre, said: “Many people don’t appreciate the dangers of heat (but high temperatures) are silent killers. They can be incredibly deadly to the elderly, people with medical conditions, and outdoor workers. Around half of West Africa’s population also lives in informal settlements, making millions highly vulnerable to extreme heat.
Farmers in Ivory Coast said in February high temperatures and lack of rain damaged crops. In March, cocoa factories across the country and Ghana stopped or reduced processing because they could not afford the beans, Reuters reported. The price of cocoa beans has reached an unprecedented level of over $8,000 per tonne, more than three times the March 2020 price.
A study published this week by the scientific group World Weather Attribution found that the heat wave would have occurred less than once a century in a world without a climate crisis. Instead, it was a once-a-decade event, with global warming averaging 1.2°C over the past four years.
The heat has affected millions of people, but the number of premature deaths or cases of illness is unknown due to lack of reporting. THE WWA Report used weather data and climate models to compare heat wave frequency and intensity on today’s heated planet with that of a world without global warming, a well-established methodology used in hundreds of ‘studies.
Tarly’s neighbor also found the heat difficult. Filmmaker Richard Lamah explained that they had to adapt their filming schedules to the weather.
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“We used to shoot from six to nine in the morning, but now it’s impossible because at 9 a.m. the sun is scorching,” he said. His colleagues began working in ventilated indoor spaces and “taking breaks to cool off and even take a shower” in the middle of filming.
At home, it was pretty much the same. “Neither I nor my children sleep well because of the heat; we feel like there’s no air,” he said.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city, residents continued to struggle with high temperatures even after the heatwave ended. Yussuf, a resident, said: “It is very difficult to work. I feel dehydrated all day, so I have to keep stopping to drink water.
The heat affects his work because he “doesn’t have the same strength to walk around” and his job involves traveling the country and making field visits.
Tarly in Ivory Coast added: “All I can do is open the windows and the door to let the air circulate, but even the air is not moving. »
He lives with a one-year-old child, who cries at night because he is hot, and his two teenage daughters, who wake up in the middle of the night to shower before going back to bed, lying in front of the fan. However, the heat persists; it doesn’t disappear.
“Four in the morning is when it’s cooler and you can sleep better, but I have to wake up to go to work,” Tarly said. “When it’s this hot, mixed with humidity, time stops.”