{"word_count": 171, "character_count": 1088}
Modeling the 2003 heatwave in Paris (paper)In February 2005, opening the conference on Climate change: a global, nationaland regional challenge, chairman Dennis Tirpak pointed out that there is nolonger any doubt that the Earth's climate is changing [...] globally, nine ofthe past 10 years have been the warmest since records began in 1861". Hesingled out the heatwave that gripped western Europe in 2003 as an example:Europe's worst natural disaster in 50 years killed as many as 40; 000 peopleand inflicted an estimated 30 billion dollars in damage. Hence, the summer of2003 will be remembered for the extreme heat, and the approximately 40,000heat-related deaths over western Europe (from 30,000 up to more than 52,000depending on the source). More specifically, the period 1-15 August 2003 wasthe most intense heat of the summer. The report of Pirard et al. (2005) statesthat Europe experienced an unprecedented heat wave in the Summer 2003. InFrance, it was the warmest summer recorded for 53 years in terms of minimal,maximal and average temperature and in terms of duration" [...]