Europe experienced its hottest summer on record this year and temperatures in the Mediterranean broke records by large margins, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Tuesday.
Like much of the Northern Hemisphere, Europe was hit by extreme weather events during the summer, including record levels of rainfall that led to deadly floods in Germany and Belgium, and heat waves that contributed to wildfires in the south, across the Mediterranean.
The average temperature from the beginning of June to the end of August was around 0.1 ° C warmer than the previous hottest summers in 2010 and 2018, a relatively small increase. But it was 1 ° C above the 1991-2020 average, reflecting the longer-term trend of man-made global warming.
Extreme heat and its consequences in Europe
The rise in temperatures was not evenly distributed as southern Europe broke heat records and the east was warmer than average. Meanwhile, northern Europe experienced below-average summer heat.
A report released in August by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that regardless of how much global temperatures rise, Europe is a region destined to get hotter. Critical thresholds for humans and ecosystems in the region will be exceeded if global warming reaches 2 ° C or more.
At 1.5 ° C warming, flooding from heavy rains is projected to increase in all parts of Europe except the south.
At 2˚C, the south is expected to experience increased drought conditions: less rainfall, warmer days, and more extreme hot days.