According to data from EU satellite monitoring, this summer was the warmest on record in Europe.
June, July, and August broke the previous high-temperature record due to a string of intense heatwaves and a persistent drought.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, August across Europe was the warmest on record by a “significant margin.”
According to the experts, August was the third warmest month ever recorded globally.
Anyone who experienced Europe’s searing summer heat will not be surprised that the continent’s temperature record has been beaten by a significant margin.
According to Copernicus data, both the entire summer and the month of August set new records this year.
The summer was 0.4% hotter than the previous record, which had been established only a year prior.
August was a stunning 0.8C warmer than the same month in 2018.
Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist with the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stated, “An intense series of heatwaves across Europe coupled with unusually dry conditions 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.”
The data indicates that not only have we seen record August temperatures in Europe, but also for the entire summer, with the previous summer record being only one year old.
In the United Kingdom, temperatures reached a new high of 40.3 degrees Celsius on July 19 in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. It was a substantial increase from the previous record, which was established in 2019 at 38.7C.
These extremes were also observed in several other nations, with 64 different regions of France reaching record highs and Portugal reaching 47 degrees Celsius in July.
Europe also had the worst drought conditions in the last five hundred years.
Globally, August’s high temperatures remained, with China also experiencing drought conditions.
However, it was not a uniform image; in several regions, heavy rainfall led to flooding.
As was most recently observed in Pakistan, wetter-than-average circumstances have caused catastrophic flooding, resulting in loss of life and property.
The satellite data also indicates that it was wetter than normal across the majority of Scandinavia and in regions of southern and southeast Europe when a “derecho” storm delivered severe winds and precipitation.
According to climate experts, excessive heat and precipitation are to be expected in a rising climate when emissions of warming gases from human activities have caused temperatures to rise by more than 1.1C.
