[Anchor]

Extreme weather driven by climate change is plaguing various parts of the globe. While the Southern Hemisphere nation of Chile was battered by torrential rains equivalent to twice its annual precipitation in the span of a week, the Northern Hemisphere in Europe is seeing wildfires spread amid unprecedented heatwaves.

Reporter Kim Young-a has the details.

[Reporter]

Crumpled cars are scattered across canyon floors that have turned into mudflats.

Overflowing torrents have cut through the middle of roads and cascade down like waterfalls.

Starting from the 14th local time, torrential downpours accompanied by winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour struck various parts of Chile.

At least 10 people were killed and 16 others injured across more than 10 regions. Notably, the northern Coquimbo region was hit with 287 millimeters of rain all at once, twice the amount it typically receives in an entire year.

Nearly 3,000 people have been displaced, and more than 100,000 remain stranded.

[Valencia / Flood Victim: Emergency alerts went off and the situation unfolded in the blink of an eye. Many people were not able to evacuate in time.]

In Spain, wildfires raging for five days have burned down an area half the size of Seoul, while fires continue to break out sequentially in countries like France.

In Europe, more than 1,000 wildfires have broken out this year through the 15th, which is more than double the average for the same period over the past 20 years.

This is a map released by NASA measuring surface temperatures from 1880 to 2024.

It has shifted entirely from white for average and blue for slightly lower temperatures to glowing red.

Global temperatures have risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 150 years.

This is pointed to as the reason why heatwaves, torrential rains, and wildfires are occurring with increasing frequency.

[Gavin Schmidt / Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies: We can see the impacts of climate change through extreme heatwaves, extreme heavy rainfall, storms, and sea level rise.]

Experts warn that unless the global warming clock is stopped, these extreme weather events could become the new normal.

(Video Editing: Kim Byung-jik)