Nature Geoscience · 30 July 2026 · From issue 15
Air and river heatwaves now strike together nearly three times more often than in the 1980s.
Yu Zhou, Yanxia Shen et al., Threefold increase in atmospheric-riverine compound heatwaves under climate change, Nature Geoscience.
Rivers are heating up at the same time as the air above them, far more often than before. Combined air and river heatwaves have roughly tripled since the 1980s. River heatwaves alone became 114% more frequent, 148% longer, and 95% stronger over that time. These joint heatwaves push river water hotter and cut its oxygen, which can harm fish and other river life.
The share of river heatwaves expected to overlap with air heatwaves by 2100, under a high-emissions scenario.
796 river basins in the US and Central Europe, model-based future estimate.
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