One EU scientist called it a “summer of extremes”.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has said that the summer of 2022 was officially Europe’s warmest on record.
On Thursday (8 September), it stated that the average temperature between June and August for the continent this year was 0.4°C over the same period in 2021, making it the warmest summer in the service’s dataset.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air temperature, sea ice cover and hydrological variables.
All of its reported findings are based on computer-generated analyses using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
The service also said that Europe’s average temperature in August was the highest on record.
Latest from the #CopernicusClimate:
🌡️ We have just experienced the warmest August and summer (June-August) on record in Europe and the joint third warmest August on record globally.
🔗 Read more: https://t.co/zr88Fkd9s5 pic.twitter.com/fbLwsnG3sj
— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) September 8, 2022
“European temperatures were most above average in the east of the continent in August, but were still well above average in the south-west, where they had been high also in June and July,” it said.
“Heatwaves were prevalent in this part of Europe and over central and eastern China for all three summer months. North America also experienced one of its warmest summers.”
Senior Scientist for the Copernicus Climate Change Service Freja Vamborg described 2022’s summer as one of “extremes”.
“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,” she said.
“The Copernicus Climate Change Service 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.”
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