调查要点：我们通过深入研究得出了以下七项关键结论，这些结论为“超级热浪”这一现象赋予了新的定义。
TAKEAWAYS-Meet the heat storm: 7 takeaways from our investigation that gave supersized heat waves a new name Heat waves have evolved from sporadic, isolated episodes to massive, cascading weather events that can blanket vast swaths of the planet for months or even years at a time.
热浪的演变：热浪已从过去偶尔发生的孤立性天气事件，演变为大规模、持续性的气候现象，能够覆盖地球上的大片区域，持续时间长达数月甚至数年。如果仍将这些现象简单地称为“热浪”，那就如同将季风称为“阵雨”一样不准确。为准确描述这种极端高温现象，路透社咨询了二十多位气候研究人员，并分析了自1960年以来全球每小时的温度数据。基于这些分析，我们提出了“热浪”这一新概念。
To continue calling such sprawling phenomena “heat waves” would be like calling a monsoon a rain shower. To understand the new reality of these immense expanses of heat, Reuters consulted with two dozen climate researchers and analyzed temperatures around the globe for every hour of every day since 1960. From those results, we developed a new concept: the “heat storm.”
全球变暖的影响：科学家们通常讨论全球变暖带来的风险，尤其是当全球平均气温比工业化前水平升高超过2°C（3.6°F）时可能发生的后果。但对于普通人来说，这些概念往往难以理解。实际上，热浪正是全球变暖与人们日常生活之间的重要纽带。
Scientists and researchers often discuss global warming in the context of risks that will arise if the planet’s average global temperature rises more than 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels. What is an ordinary person to make of that? Not much. Heat waves are the connective tissue between the science of global warming and our everyday experience.
热浪的普遍性：过去，超级热浪极为罕见；如今，它们却在全球范围内频繁发生。耶鲁大学气候变化传播项目主任安东尼·莱瑟罗维茨（Anthony Leiserowitz）告诉路透社：“给这些极端天气事件起名是一种让人们意识到其严重性的有效方式。”然而，尽管每年约有五十万人因高温而死亡，我们却仍未对热浪进行类似的命名。
But supersized heat waves used to be rare. No longer. Now they swarm the planet. Naming events is “a powerful way for people to understand that something is happening,” Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, told Reuters. Yet “we don't do that with heat waves,” he said, even though heat has been estimated to kill almost half a million people a year.
结论总结：《热浪时代》（The Age of Heat Storms）一文总结了路透社的调查结果，提出了“热浪”的定义及其对人类社会的影响。
These are the key findings of the Reuters investigation, The Age of Heat Storms: WHAT IS A HEAT STORM? There is no universal definition of a heat wave.
没有普遍认可的热浪定义。因此，在与气候科学家协商后，我们将普通热浪定义为连续五天或以上的异常高温。我们将最大的热浪——即在高峰期覆盖全球至少1%（大约相当于加拿大一半面积）的热浪——称为热风暴。
So, in consultation with climate scientists, we have defined an ordinary heat wave as five or more consecutive days of abnormally high temperatures. We call the largest heat waves – those that at their peak cover at least 1% of the globe, roughly half the size of Canada – heat storms.
热风暴越来越多、越来越大。20世纪60年代，热风暴很罕见，年均活跃风暴约为5个。本十年，热风暴年均约为102个。其中一个导致了今年夏天欧洲致命的高温。
MORE AND BIGGER Heat storms were rare in the 1960s, when they averaged about five active storms per year. This decade, heat storms have averaged about 102 a year. One of them caused this summer’s deadly heat in Europe.
367天热风暴的传记。有记录以来最大的热风暴名为“维拉热风暴”，持续了367天，跨越2023年至2024年，席卷了全球近85%的地区。路透社讲述了维拉如何影响世界各地：从德克萨斯州一名足球运动员住院，到亚马逊河海豚在“死亡马戏团”中死亡，再到科特迪瓦一名可可农民的生计被毁。
BIOGRAPHY OF A 367-DAY HEAT STORM The largest heat storm on record, named Heat Storm Vera, lasted for 367 days over 2023-2024 and swept over nearly 85% of the globe. Reuters tells the story of how Vera impacted every corner of the world, from a football player going to the hospital in Texas, to Amazonian river dolphins dying in a “circus of death,” to a cocoa farmer whose livelihood was destroyed in Ivory Coast.
温室气体排放。随着温室气体排放增加，热风暴和普通热浪也随之增加。从20世纪60年代到本十年，大气中的二氧化碳含量增加了30%以上。在此期间，热风暴和热浪可能覆盖的地球平均面积增加了12倍以上。
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS As greenhouse gas emissions have increased, so too have heat storms and ordinary heat waves. From the 1960s to this decade, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 30%. Over that time, the average portion of the planet likely to be covered by heat storms and heat waves has risen more than 12-fold. 18 YEARS WITHOUT A BREAK Another new phenomenon we identified: heat storms that run consecutively, simultaneously, or both — heat storm cascades.
连续18年没有间歇。我们发现的另一种新现象是：热风暴连续发生、同时发生，或两者兼有——即热风暴级联。这些级联的持续时间从20世纪60年代的平均约两个月，增加到21世纪初的九个月。然后，2008年7月6日，一个级联开始了——并且至今仍未停止。超过18年来，至少有一个热风暴一直在肆虐地球，而且常常不止一个。
The duration of these cascades swelled from an average of roughly two months in the 1960s to nine months in the early 2000s. Then, on July 6, 2008, a cascade started — and still has not stopped. For more than 18 years straight, at least one heat storm has been roiling the planet, and often more than one.
我们正处于一场热浪风暴之中 世界目前正处于热浪风暴“雷蒙多”的控制之下，今年夏天它炙烤了欧洲，并在西班牙和法国引发了大规模野火。自2026年2月28日形成以来，雷蒙多已波及地球表面近四分之三的区域。
WE ARE IN A HEAT STORM NOW The world is now in the grip of Heat Storm Raimundo, which broiled Europe and stoked massive wildfires in Spain and France this summer. Since its inception on February 28, 2026, Raimundo has touched almost three-quarters of the planet’s surface.
实时追踪热浪风暴的工具 作为本系列报道的一部分，路透社创建了一个在线热浪风暴追踪器，可实时命名并追踪热浪风暴。这现已成为路透社气候监测站的一项功能，该监测站提供了解重大天气事件和衡量地球变暖程度的途径。
LIVE TOOL TO TRACK HEAT STORMS As part of this series, Reuters has created an online Heat Storm Tracker that names and follows heat storms in real time. This is now a feature of the Reuters Climate Monitor, which offers ways to understand major weather events and measure how the planet is warming.