The latest five-year averages show that temperatures in Europe are now 2.3°C above pre-industrial levels, compared to a 1.3°C rise globally. 23 of the 30 most severe heat waves on the continent have occurred since 2000, and five more have occurred in the last 3 years.
This is stated in the report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU climate agency Copernicus (C3S), Euronews reports.
According to the latest data from scientists, since 1991, the rate of warming in Europe has been twice the global average. Both agencies warn that European countries need to do more to reduce emissions and abandon fossil fuels.
Because of this, Tamsin Green, a meteorologist at Weather & Radar, believes “with a fairly high degree of confidence” that 2024 is likely to be another record year.
“The last 10 years have been the ten warmest on record, with most of the Earth's warming occurring in the last 40 years. We saw April 2024 become the 11th month in a row with the hottest temperatures on record. And the degree of sea surface warming in the North Atlantic has risen to the highest level in at least 40 years," she says.
Forecasters warn that the continent could be in for another extremely hot summer – possibly even the hottest on record.
"One thing that is a huge, undeniable factor that cannot be ignored is that we keep breaking heat records," the forecaster said.
Among the reasons for drastic temperature changes, scientists cite the fact that the world is currently in a transitional phase between the climatic phenomena of El Niño and La Niña, which is "crucial" for determining global weather and temperature regimes. We are forecast to remain in this neutral phase until at least early summer, but El Niño's influence is still ongoing.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that experts of the World Bank warned that Europe is not ready to overcome the climate catastrophe. Also, the International tribunal on the Law of the Sea recognized the inadequacy of the Paris Agreement to combat global warming.
EcoPolitic also reported that in March climatologists recorded the highest average temperature in the entire history of observations.
