According to scientists, human-induced climate change has made recent extreme heat in the US southwest, Mexico and Central America 35 times more likely.

The World Weather Attribution, WWA, group studied excess heat between May and early June, when the US heatwave was concentrated in southwest states including California, Nevada and Arizona.

The scientists stated that such a heatwave was now four times more likely than it was in twenty four (24) years old, blaming this development on planet-warming emissions.

The WWA study focused on regions in the southwest of the United States and Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras which also saw dangerously high temperatures, while officials in Mexico have blamed the heatwave for the deaths of scores of people and howler monkeys in the southern state of Tabasco.