Europe has had the ‘hottest summer on record’

The average temperature from June to August this summer was 0.4C hotter than last year’s summer

Saphora Smith
Climate Correspondent
Thursday 08 September 2022 09:53 BST
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<p>A tactical firefighter set fires to a plot of land as firefighters attempt to prevent the wildfire from spreading due to wind change in Gironde on 17 July. </p>

A tactical firefighter set fires to a plot of land as firefighters attempt to prevent the wildfire from spreading due to wind change in Gironde on 17 July.

Europe has experienced its hottest summer on record, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The average temperature from June to August this summer was 0.4C hotter than last year’s summer, according to the service which is funded by the European Union.

The service, which is run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, found that European temperatures were mostly above average in the east of the continent in August, but were still well above average in the south-west, where they had been high also in June and July.

“An intense series of heatwaves across Europe paired with unusually dry conditions, have led to a summer of extremes with records in terms of temperature, drought and fire activity in many parts of Europe, affecting society and nature in various ways,” said Senior Scientist for the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Freja Vamborg.

“The Copernicus Climate Change Service data shows that we’ve not only had record August temperatures for Europe but also for summer, with the previous summer record only being one year old.”

European heatwaves and wildfires dominated the headlines in the region this summer, with reports that a drought on the continent could be the worst in 500 years.

Climate scientists have warned that if global heating is allowed to continue unabated then summers in Europe will be marked by more extreme heat, droughts and wildfires.

Even if the world stopped pumping out all emissions today, scientists warn that the extremes being experienced by people across the world would not get better unless a lot of carbon was removed from the atmosphere.

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