European Heat Wave of 2003

The 2003 European Heat Wave caused many deaths throughout European lands. The seriously hot period of this event only lasted 3 months, but it's effects lasted longer. It took a long time for farmers to get back on their feet from all their dead livestock as the result of the Heat Wave. Many cows, chickens, pigs, and other farm animals died from dehydration or other factors. Not only the farmers livestock, but also many crops had been destroyed because of the climate conditions. This tampered with the prices of foods and drinks causing them to rise because there was less and less, and they haven't gone back down yet. Now the actual causes of the Heat Wave were of  four major causes. The first is the fact that there was an anticyclone hovering over Europe at the time. An anticyclone is simply the reverse of a cyclone, so instead of it causing rain and clouds with low pressure, it has high pressure so there are no clouds, the weather is calm and still. The second cause is the amount of pollution that had been produced, this caused climate change as well. The third is that there was an El Niño that had previously happened that past winter and there were lingering effects from that. An El Niño is simply a warm winter. This happens when warm waters are pushed West through the pacific, and the water vapors from this water warms the air. The last cause of this catastrophe is the fact that there was a storm in Southern Portugal that pushed a strong gust of hot air from a desert west across Europe. This catastrophe killed as many as 30,000 had died this year. Many of the deaths being of elderly age and caused from air pollution, dehydration, heat strokes, etc. The damage heat waves produce are very underestimated. Heat waves actually take more lives than hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods combines. The Heat Wave also produced many wildfires throughout the continent. These wildfires burned many forests to the ground stripping Europe fo a lot of its trees. There were also droughts and floods that had to be accounted for. The floods were caused by melting icebergs and glaciers. Overall the 2003 European Heat Wave effected Europes economy, agriculture, and population for the worst.