CHEONGJU, SOUTH KOREA - JULY 16: In this handout image provided by the South Korea National Fire Agency, South Korean rescue workers searching for missing persons along a road submerged by floodwaters leading to an underground tunnel in flood waters after heavy rains on July 16, 2023 in Cheongju, South Korea. Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains have killed at least 32 people nationwide and left more than 10 people missing while thousands evacuated their homes due to rain damage, authorities said. (Photo by South Korea National Fire Agency via Getty Images)


A record-hot June, followed by a disaster-packed July has climate scientists “shocked” by just how extreme the extreme weather has been, including some ocean waters feeling like “a hot tub.”

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A second weekend of torrential rain in the Northeast triggered flash floods in eastern Pennsylvania that killed five people on Saturday, according to officials, including a mother whose two young children remain missing as of Tuesday morning. California’s Death Valley reached an alarming 128 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, just a couple degrees shy of some of the rarest temperatures ever recorded on Earth. And on Monday, a prolonged heat wave broke several records in Phoenix, including tying the city’s record for 18 consecutive days where temperatures reached 110 degrees or above.

The extreme weather and loss of life extended beyond the United States.

In South Korea, several days of heavy rainfall triggered landslides and flash floods that killed at least 40 people as of Monday, including a dozen people trapped in their vehicles when flood waters submerged an underpass. And a fierce and prolonged heat wave blanketing much of southern Europe prompted officials to issue severe heat advisories in 16 cities across Italy, where forecasters warned that temperatures could reach upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit this week—setting what would be an all-time record high for any European country.

Meanwhile, the heat continues to exacerbate raging wildfires in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Greece and Switzerland. In fact, preliminary data suggests that the first week of July could be the hottest in recorded history, the World Meteorological Organization reported, following the hottest June on record.

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While some of the outcomes in recent weeks have been surprising, climate scientists aren’t surprised by why they’re happening. Many researchers and environmental activists have urged their governments for years to more rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, only to see fossil fuel use soar to record levels year after year.

On Sunday, as the U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry arrived in China hoping to revive cooperation between the two countries on addressing climate change, a remote township in China’s western Xinjiang region set a new national record by reaching 126 degrees Fahrenheit. China and the U.S.—the two nations with the highest carbon footprint by far—have only expanded their fossil fuel production in recent years despite pledging under the Paris Agreement to drastically reduce their emissions by the end of the decade.

To Ekwurzel, the moment seemed only fitting to take place during a historic heat wave. “This is a wake-up call,” she said. “Adapting to this massive problem is the cost of that inaction. The receipts for that are coming in now.”