Parched, burning southern Europe; flooded north: Is it climate change?

It's been a season of extremes for Europe. Greece has seen its hottest temperatures ever recorded; Britain, its wettest summer. Are the two linked by climate change? Experts say that while the globe's changing climate could be contributing to extremes � and that more record-setting weather can be expected � it can't be blamed for individual events. "We can't talk about this summer in terms of climate change," Dimitris Kaskaoutis, an atmospheric physics researcher in Athens, said Friday. "Everything must be examined over a long period of time and on a global scale." Southern Europe has been struck by two heat waves in as many months, with soaring temperatures blamed for hundreds of deaths. In Hungary alone, government officials said this week that up to 500 people may have died because of the heat. The dry conditions have left forests vulnerable, and vast swathes across the Balkans and Italy have been ravaged by massive wildfires. In the first heat wave in June, Athens recorded its highest temperatures ever since records began in 1850: 46.9 degrees Celsius (116.42 Fahrenheit), Kaskaoutis said.