Washington Hardly a day went by in July without an extreme weather event in the news. “California’s Death Valley sizzles during the ongoing heat wave”, “Siesta in Germany – employers and unions argue about possible heat breaks” or “Acropolis in Athens is closed due to heat” – these are just a selection of the latest news.
Parts of Europe and the USA are particularly affected by the high temperatures. “The intensity and duration of so-called heat domes is increasing, they are particularly persistent all over the world this year,” says Matthew Cappucci, resident meteorologist of the well-known US newspaper “Washington Post”.
The 25-year-old earned his degree in atmospheric sciences from the elite Harvard University. According to Cappucci, he is a “weather fanatic” and has five jobs: he makes forecasts on television, in the newspaper, for the weather app MyRadar, he teaches at night school and writes books. His videos of him chasing storms in a pickup truck and wearing a hard hat are hugely popular on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. In an interview, he talks about ever higher temperature records, early warning systems and artificial intelligence in meteorology.
Read the full interview with Matthew Cappucci here:
Why is this summer unusual?
It is very likely that July saw the planet experience its hottest week in 140 years since meteorological records began. There is no reliable data prior to this period, but we do know that temperatures were much cooler prior to that. I like to explain this with an image: imagine you want to jump up and down and reach the ceiling in your apartment. You cannot reach them for a long time. But with really high heels, which get higher and higher heels, you hit the ceiling much more often over time. The same thing happens with the summer temperatures we experience. They fluctuate but get hotter on average.
Parts of the USA and Europe have been under a so-called “heat dome” for weeks, what is happening there?
The Earth’s new normal is warming because humanity is irreversibly dumping thermal energy into the atmosphere. Ordinary weather events are becoming extreme weather and are breaking records with increasing frequency. Heat domes are huge, spreading areas of high pressure that trap hot, dry, sinking air over an area, causing high temperatures. Because of climate change, these heat domes are increasing in intensity and duration, making them particularly persistent around the world this year.
The 25-year-old earned his degree in atmospheric sciences from the elite Harvard University.
(Photo: Twitter/@MatthewCappucci)
What do you say to people who think this is not climate change, warm weather has always existed?
I’ll tell you, where did you get your atmospheric sciences degree from? In America in particular, many people believe that their opinion is equivalent to facts from someone who is qualified. In the public debate, these opinions are sometimes treated on an equal footing with the expertise of scientists, which is nonsense. Science must be transparent, it must present evidence. But I don’t care about a guy named Larry voicing his opinions on climate change from his basement.
“Europe is not prepared for extreme weather”
They regularly travel to Europe to observe weather phenomena there. Is Europe prepared for the extreme weather of the future?
No, Europe is not prepared for extreme heat waves, for example. The aging of the European population is of great concern to me, the proportion of older people in the population is higher than in the USA. Heat kills more people each year than floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined. People with a pre-existing health condition push their bodies to the limit, often without realizing it. This is especially true in Europe, where air conditioning is not very common. When it gets very warm at night and people have to sleep and cannot escape the heat, it can very easily be fatal.
And what is Europe doing right now?
The green energy projects of many European countries are a model for the USA. How the Netherlands and Denmark are arming themselves against flooding with embankments and dikes in anticipation of sea level rise is impressive. There is a basic attitude in the USA that we are more powerful than nature. People still build their houses on stilts by the sea. Then a hurricane sweeps away the houses, people collect the insurance money and rebuild the houses in exactly the same place. I have the impression that people in Europe respect nature more.
Despite early warning systems on mobile phones, why are there so many deaths due to extreme weather?
Much depends on individual responsibility. Sure, the National Weather Service can buzz our phones in the middle of the night and tell us to go to a shelter. The problem with this is that there is a certain deadening effect, like: nothing happened to me last time, nothing will happen to me this time either. I also see myself as a risk communicator, explaining to people: No, your house is nothing special, it can be hit by a weather catastrophe just like any other.
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Do we still need the classic TV weather report? Everyone can get information in real time.
The TV weather forecast is relevant to many people, but I don’t think that will be the case for long. I’m already trying to reach my audience through TikTok and Twitter alongside my work on radio, The Washington Post and TV so I can reach a broad spectrum. People want someone to explain the weather and provide context for big events.
AI in meteorology
What role does artificial intelligence play in meteorology?
It will definitely play a major role in the coming years, especially in so-called pattern recognition. As a human meteorologist, I have a mental encyclopedia of past events. But as good as a human forecaster might be, machine learning will be even better at cataloging past events and spotting patterns. The day will come when machine learning will make better predictions than humans.
Air conditioners can become a health hazard in Europe.
(Photo: dpa)
You are 25, weather is your life. What fascinates you about it?
When I was seven I saved money for a camcorder so I could make videos of clouds. The fact that air, water and heat work together to create all sorts of crazy weather phenomena has always fascinated me. Most people are not aware of it, but they deal with science every day through the daily weather report.
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When you wake up in the morning, do you look out the window or at your phone to check the weather?
I do both pretty much at the same time. The view out of the window is important, I can see and smell what the weather is doing and how the air mass is changing. I notice that I’ve been doing this job for a really long time.
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