FOCUS ON FIJI Winter heat wave in chile offers ‘window’ to warmer world

SANTIAGO (Reuters)

– A winter heat wave bringing historically high temperatures to Chile is a “window” to an increasingly warm future, according to scientists.

Globally, July was already the hottest month on record and the first days of August brought a heat wave to parts of northern and central Chile, bringing springlike weather to the capital in the dead of the Southern Hemisphere winter.

“In a way, this is a window into the future, we are seeing conditions that are going to normalize,” said Martin Jacques, a climatologist and professor at Chile’s University of Concepcion. “What now seems very extreme could gradually become more and more normal in a few years.”

“Having temperatures of 37 degrees (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in the middle of southern winter is extraordinary,” said Raul Cordero, a climatologist at the University of Santiago.

“It is a temperature anomaly of almost 15 degrees above typical values and unfortunately it is not a local problem, it is a global problem.”

Jacques said that while some of the temperature increase is expected during