35 degrees – The Nature report reckons temperatures could exceed this

Scorching temperatures in the UAE could be too hot for people to live in by the end of the century, a major scientific study has claimed.

The Nature Climate Change report said coastal cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai could experience summer days that surpass the human habitability limit.

The report said heat and humidity could go so high even the healthiest could not stand more than a few hours outdoors.

“There is a temperature threshold beyond which the human body will over heat and shut down and there is a limit to human adaptation to climate change, that limit could be reached by the end of this century,” the study read.

Researchers focused their study on a key heat measurement known as the wet-bulb temperature – that cools the body through sweating. A wet-bulb temperature of 35 degrees Celsius is regarded as the survivability limit for healthy people but the study read that the Arabian Gulf was “likely to approach and exceed this critical threshold under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas concentrations.”

It said: “The worst impacts of wet-bulb temperatures will be felt in places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dhahran.” But experts said the worst impacts could be avoided if the world’s countries find the will to curb emissions of greenhouse gas pollution.”

A National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology official said: “We can give current information or weather information over the next month or so, not on something that could possibly take place after a century.”