Serbia overheated: Grim weather forecast for the future

Climatologist Irida Lazić and Dr. Andrej Stojić from the Institute of Physics spoke about the storm that hit our country on Thursday and the danger that threatens us from supercell storms and tornadoes.

Irida explained in detail the kind of storm that happened yesterday in our country.

"In the past few days, we had a heat wave that brought warm air to our area, which was an excellent basis for strong storms. When compared to last year, this year's storms were stronger. Each year storms get frequent, and a warming climate fuels those storms. When air humidity and certain currents combine over the same area, we get storms like we had in the past few days," says Irida, explaining that it is difficult to forecast the exact intensity of storms.

"When we have a flow from Africa, it's the sand you see on the cars after the rain. If there's no rain, we can often see a yellowish sky or mud, and that’s all sand. When warm air comes with sand from Africa, we see it as a minefield and we're just waiting for local storms. The condition is when we have enough warm weather over that area. It's hard to predict the exact intensity of the storms," she added.

This will be the hottest summer in the past few years

He points out that it is almost certain that this summer will be the hottest in the past few years, as announced.

"The summer has just begun. This summer will be hot, as announced. Hotter than before. Month after month we record temperature records, and especially high temperatures are expected in August. July will be warm, warmer than we are used to. In August, due to these air currents, warm weather is expected, with many heat waves," says Irida, but explains that the storms in August should be of reduced intensity:

"June is most susceptible to storms, while August is not expected to have such strong storms. Due to climate change and one percent warming, humidity has increased, fueling storms, so, this is what our new climate will be like."

An increase in temperature by one and a half degrees, a greater possibility for extreme events

As the climatologist explains, with rising temperatures, droughts could occur every third year, instead of every tenth.

"When the temperature increases by one and a half degrees, that distribution of temperatures shifts towards a warmer climate. We will have a higher probability of an extreme event occurring in our area. In other words, if we had a once-in-ten-year extreme drought event, now we will have a once-in-a-year three years", says Irida, but notes that, unfortunately, this does not mean the same for Serbia.

However, our area is warming faster, so it is even warmer here than in the rest of the world.

"Our and the Mediterranean area are warming faster than the rest of the region. So, when we say globally one and a half degrees, it means a higher number for Serbia. We have exceeded 1.8 degrees and we have already warmed up. This is because of one annoying anticyclone that was further south, now it has moved further north and has come to the area of ​​Spain and Portugal and has a more frequent impact on our area and we have that Azores anticyclone. Therefore, we have a higher probability of heat waves", concluded Irida Lazić.

Melting of Greenland, rising sea levels, and we don't even know what's coming to us from the Sahara

Dr. Andrej Stojić says that in today's civilization processes are incredibly fast, leaving a deep and comprehensive environmental impact.

"Processes in modern civilization take place very quickly. We have neither the awareness nor the mechanisms to implement changes. Everything has taken off, our ability has been reduced, and the processes affecting the environment are moving at their speed. Even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases today, sea level rise will continue for thousands of years. For some things, millennia will pass until they are stabilized," says Dr. Stojić.

Due to global warming, large amounts of mutagenic and carcinogenic gases arrive from Greenland with numerous microorganisms unknown to this world.

Also, new pandemics threaten us from the melted ice

"The land in Greenland is no longer under ice. It not only emits gases with the greenhouse effect but also huge amounts of mutagenic and carcinogenic gases, as well as numerous microorganisms that the world is not used to. We have already seen this and due to these viruses, microorganisms, and bacteria, we could face more dangerous pandemics. We don’t know in what way it will affect our world, considering the inertness characterizing our civilization."