Deadly heat waves around the Mediterranean, such as those that killed about 18,000 people in 2003, could become the norm this century if current trends in greenhouse emissions continue, researchers reported Friday.

The number of dangerously hot days in the Mediterranean region could increase by up to 500 percent, according to a study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

France would have the biggest rise in extreme high temperature days. Paris would truly sizzle if simulations of the future came to pass, with temperatures that occurred in the French capital during the killer heat wave of 2003 exceeded dozens of times each year.

About 15,000 people died in France from the heat in 2003, and nearly 3,000 died in Italy that same summer. The researchers found that global warming pushes summer temperatures “dramatically” over the range that correlated with these deaths.

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