Hottest June on record in Western Europe as heatwaves hit continent

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded in Western Europe, with temperatures more than three degrees Celcius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has said.

The climate monitoring service said Thursday that the average temperature in Western Europe reached 20.74C (69.33F), driven by a heatwave in the second half of the month that broke records across several countries.

Globally, the average temperature was 16.54C (61.77F), or 0.56C (1F) above the 1991-2020 average for June.

The month was also 1.39C (2.5F) warmer than the estimated pre-industrial June average for the 1850-1900 period, Copernicus said.

The June heatwave, which followed a succession of extreme weather events, highlighted the challenges expected in the future, while dry conditions in southwestern Europe prompted wildfires, according to Copernicus.

The average sea surface temperature across oceans outside the polar regions reached 20.86C (69.55F) degrees in June, the highest ever recorded for the month, the service said.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and changes in atmospheric circulation are causing more frequent and more intense heatwaves.

June’s heatwave created a “heat dome” effect, a high-pressure system acting like a lid on a boiling pot.

Thousands of deaths were linked to the heatwave, mostly in France, Spain and Belgium.

More than two-thirds of Europeans – 410 million people – endured temperatures topping 35C (95F) during the June heatwave, according to an analysis by the AFP news agency.

High humidity levels were one of the reasons the June heatwave was so intense, Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus, said.

“It was extremely humid, which then meant we people didn’t get relief at night. So we had a number of tropical nights in a row,” she said.

The Mediterranean experienced its own record-breaking marine heatwave, with the continent’s Atlantic coasts also hit by hot spells, putting ecosystems at risk.

“When the sea is warm, we get less alleviation at nighttime because there’s no coolness coming from the ocean. There’s no sea breeze,” Burgess said.

Dry conditions raised drought risks in Eastern Europe and contributed to wildfire activity in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, Copernicus said.

Copernicus regularly publishes data on global surface temperatures, sea ice and precipitation based on computer analyses that combine billions of observations from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations worldwide.