A Reuters investigation, in consultation with 24 climate scientists analyzing global temperatures since 1960, concluded that extreme heat waves have become more common and more frequent, leading the agency to use the term "heat storms" to describe the most severe of these phenomena.

A Reuters investigation, in consultation with 24 climate scientists analyzing global temperatures since 1960, concluded that extreme heat waves have become more common and more frequent, leading the agency to use the term "heat storms" to describe the most severe of these phenomena.

According to the investigation, the average number of active thermal storms per year has increased from about 5 storms in the 1960s to about 102 during the current decade, while the average area of ​​the Earth expected to be covered by storms and heat waves has increased more than 12 times.

The investigation followed a heat storm called "Vera", which lasted 367 days during the years 2023 and 2024, and swept away about 85% of the Earth's surface. It also indicated continued chains of heat storms since July 6, 2008, with at least one storm every day somewhere in the world. The investigation shows that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 30% since the 1960s, which warns of the expansion of thermal phenomena and their consequences for humans and the environment, while Reuters has created an electronic tool to name thermal storms and track them in real time.