According to German researchers, many regions in Europe, Russia and the United States have been facing longer heat waves due to weakened summer winds. The researchers said that climate change has been weakening the summer winds that bring in cool ocean air.

On Thursday, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said in a report in the journal Science that Arctic region has been warming rapidly and it is disturbing air streams in ways. Due to that, Europe, Russia and the US have been facing longer heat waves. In 2010, hot weather in Russia devastated crop harvests and had caused wildfires.

Jascha Lehmann, co-author of the study, said, “Unabated climate change will probably further weaken summer circulation patterns which could thus aggravate the risk of heat waves. The warm temperature extremes we’ve experienced in recent years might be just a beginning”.

As per the International Energy Agency, oil, coal and natural gas are currently at record levels. Global temperatures are set to warm by 3.6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. According to the researchers, that’s the quickest climate shift in 10,000 years.

The Potsdam report revealed that air flows that govern storm activity can be disrupted by temperature gains. Lead author Dim Coumou said when climate change disturbs the great air streams in the sky, the ground gets severely affected.

The researchers took help of data on atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere from 1979 to 2013. Coumou also said that decreased variability makes weather more persistent and it also results in extreme heat on monthly timescales.