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Western Europe officially experienced its hottest June on record, as scientists warned such an “exceptional heatwave” was likely to become more frequent and intense because of climate change exacerbating extremes of heat, dryness, cold and wet around the world.
Even as the global average temperature for June was slightly cooler than a year before as some parts of the southern hemisphere endured a colder winter, the overall global temperature rise was still tracking at 1.55C above pre-industrial levels for the 12 months to the end of June.
But the average temperature in western Europe was a high 2.81C above the 1991-2020 average at 20.49C in June, according to Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe’s earth observation service.
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The highest daily average sea surface temperature ever recorded for June in the western Mediterranean was also reached, at 27C. This was 3.7C above average, the highest daily anomaly ever recorded for any month.
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said much of the region was experiencing “very strong heat stress”.
“In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe,” she said.
The continent is the fastest warming, partly as a consequence of its proximity to the Arctic where melting ice exposes the dark ground and contributes to a radiation loop known as the albedo effect.
On June 30, the daily air temperature average over western Europe hit 24.9C, setting a new June record, Copernicus said.
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This was one of the hottest daily average summer temperatures ever observed in the region, only surpassed on a few occasions during heatwaves between mid-July and mid-August.
Some scientists have concluded that the world is already experiencing the 1.5C level of long-term global warming at which irreversible changes to the planet occur.
This is measured over a period of at least two decades, which means the recent breaches of that threshold could be limited by drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
Richard Allan at the University of Reading said: “The notable, damaging heatwaves across Europe and severe recent flooding in Texas and China underscore the perilous path our warming climate is taking us on — weather extremes will continue to worsen until greenhouse gas emissions are cut sufficiently to stabilise Earth’s climate.”
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Copernicus said many parts of Europe experienced a “feels-like” temperature of at least 38C last month. The “feels like” measure takes into account factors such as wind, humidity, cloud cover and solar radiation.
Parts of Spain suffered as many as 24 tropical nights through the month, where temperatures remained above 20C. This is 18 more than the average for June, the scientists said.
Hot nights make it harder for the body to recover from the daytime heat, increasing the risk of heat-related health problems.
Overall, it was the third-warmest June globally, Copernicus said, with temperatures above average in the US, northern Canada, central Asia, eastern Asia and West Antarctica.
But temperatures were below average over India and southern South America, with record cold conditions in Argentina and Chile.
Data visualisation by Eva Xiao and Molly Taylor
Climate Capital
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