Climate change boosted deadly Haj heat by 2.5C: scientists

LONDON: The heatwave in Saudi Arabia blamed for the deaths of 1,300 people on the Haj pilgrimage this month was made worse by climate change, a team of European scientists said on Friday.

Temperatures along the route from June 16 to 18 reached 47C at times and exceeded 51.8C at Makkah’s Great Mosque.

The heat would have been approximately 2.5C (4.5 Fahrenheit) cooler without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to a weather attribution analysis by ClimaMeter, which...