Summer 2022 hottest ever recorded in Europe
Much of continental Europe had to battle devastating wildfires and drought. Photo: AP/Alberto Saiz
Both August and the summer overall were the hottest ever on record in Europe "by a substantial margin", according to newly published data.
Temperatures were 0.8C higher on average in Europe in August than the previous high of 2018, while the summer months overall were 0.4C hotter than last year, according to analysis from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Globally, temperatures in August were the third-highest on record, C3S added.
Senior scientist for C3S, Freja Vamborg, said: “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.
"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.”
Europe saw a number of heatwaves across the three months, including Ireland recording its highest temperature for 135 years, reaching 33C in Phoenix Park in July.
The UK also shattered its previous record when a number of locations exceeded 40C, while much of continental Europe had to battle devastating wildfires and drought. North America also experienced one of its warmest summers, C3S said.
August was generally much drier than average in much of western and parts of eastern Europe, while it was wetter-than-average over most of Scandinavia and parts of southern and southeastern Europe. Southern regions were hit by a “derecho” storm, with extreme winds and rainfall, C3S said.
The stark evolution of global warming can be seen when gauging previous August highs in Europe. Last month was almost 1C warmer than August 2010, 2003 and 2015, the three highest years after the just-beaten 2018 record.
C3S said: "2003 and 2010 had higher local August extremes than 2022, but unusually high temperatures were particularly widespread across the continent in 2022, whereas some large regions of Europe were colder than average in August 2003 and 2010."
Globally, August 2022 was 0.3C warmer than the 1991-2020 average and the joint third warmest after 2016 and 2019.
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