Western Europe sizzles through hottest June-July on record

Western Europe experienced its hottest combined June-July period on record, as climate change intensified heat, drought and wildfire risks across the region, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

The average temperature across western Europe reached 21.62°C during June and July, surpassing the previous record set in 2022. Copernicus attributed the new high to “the exceptional persistence of heat” this summer, France 24 reports.

Soil moisture levels were also “significantly lower” than in July 2022, when western Europe experienced its last major drought.

“This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another,” said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which operates Copernicus.

Very dry conditions affected much of western and central Europe in July, including France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Ireland and parts of Iceland. River levels also fell unusually low, with the Seine, Rhine and Danube among the waterways most affected.

The combination of extreme heat and dryness has disrupted transport, irrigation and energy production in several countries while creating conditions conducive to wildfires. France and Spain have faced some of their most severe fires in decades, while major blazes have also struck other parts of Europe, the US northwest and Canada.

Meanwhile, global ocean temperatures reached a record high for a second consecutive month in July. Average sea-surface temperatures hit 20.96°C, surpassing the previous July record set in 2023.

Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said unusually warm waters in parts of the Mediterranean and Atlantic were contributing to the trend, while a developing El Niño in the Pacific “is probably the driving force” behind the record ocean temperatures.

“We are now facing a very large El Nino – possibly unprecedented in terms of amplitude,” Buontempo said, adding that “the contribution coming from the tropical Pacific becomes quite important.”

Globally, July was tied for the second-warmest July on record, with average surface air temperatures 1.47°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline.

Buontempo warned that a new global temperature record could be set later this year or in early 2027.

“The last 11 years have been the hottest on record and we have not seen a climate that warm during our lifetime, and very possibly our civilisation,” he said. “And the main driver for this warming – as we know – are the greenhouse gases.”

Copernicus bases its assessments on billions of satellite and weather observations collected on land and at sea, with records extending back to 1940.

By Vafa Guliyeva