Heat in Europe: summer characterized by climate extremes

epd/rtr | Heat, extreme drought and low water levels: According to the EU service Copernicus, climate extremes have characterized summer across Europe. The persistent and exceptional heat made the summer the third warmest on the continent since weather records began, Copernicus announced on Friday in Bonn. Western Europe even experienced the hottest summer ever recorded.

The average summer temperature in Western Europe was 21.7 degrees Celsius, 2.5 degrees above the comparable value for the years 1991 to 2020, it said. The previous record from the summer of 2003 has been exceeded.

Meteorological summer includes the months of June, July and August. With a view to Western Europe, the Copernicus experts emphasized that the exceptional warmth lasted well beyond the core months of summer. “Record high daily temperatures” were also recorded in May and September.

According to Copernicus, heat in particular was a problem for people in Europe. Just over half of the continent (52 percent) experienced very severe heat stress, i.e. a perceived temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or more. A record number of 13 days of very severe heat stress were recorded on average for Western Europe, it said. Severe heat stress occurred on an average of 41 days, which corresponds to temperatures of 32 to 38 degrees - also a record.

Samantha Burgess, climate strategy director at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), spoke of a “summer of overlapping climate extremes”. With a view to the consequences, for example for the availability of water or for health, Burgess called for “building resilience to increasingly interconnected climate risks”.

Health suffers when the body can no longer cool itself by sweating due to high temperatures and humidity. Symptoms include an increased heart rate, nausea, dizziness and potentially life-threatening heat strokes. People who work outdoors, older people and people with cardiovascular diseases or diabetes are particularly at risk.

In view of the ongoing drought, Copernicus also recorded the lowest water levels in Europe since records began in 1992. In July and August, “record or near-record low levels” occurred simultaneously on many major European rivers, including the Rhine, the Danube and the Seine. The Copernicus climate service is provided by ECMWF.

There were reports of extremely low water levels in many rivers. At the same time, the seas around Europe were unusually warm, as the EU climate change service C3S reports.

The result was increased pressure on irrigation, cooling of nuclear reactors, hydropower, fresh water availability and energy supply. This illustrates the close connection between climate change and geopolitical challenges such as energy security, said the service of the EU Earth observation program Copernicus.

There have been record or near-record sea surface temperatures along much of the Atlantic coast and in the western and central Mediterranean, it said. This was accompanied by strong to exceptional marine heat waves. “Marine heat waves can increase heat in adjacent coastal areas by limiting nighttime cooling and increasing humidity, thereby worsening heat stress.”