The summer of 2022 in Europe was the hottest in recorded history “by a wide margin”, with yearly temperatures exceeding the 30-year norm in all but one country.
Data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) suggest last year was modestly warmer than 2019, 2015, and 2014 and 0.3C cooler than 2020, whereas only Iceland had temperatures below the 1991-2020 average.
However, summer in Europe was by far the warmest on record, surpassing 2021, Copernicus said. The continent was plagued by exceptional heatwaves, wildfires, and temperature records in numerous nations. With temperatures about 2C above average in October, the continent had its hottest October ever, as well as its second warmest June, which was around 1.6C above average.
“The latest 2022 Climate Highlights from C3S provides clear evidence that avoiding the worst consequences will require society to both urgently reduce carbon emissions and swiftly adapt to the changing climate.”, said Copernicus C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess.
“Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, are the main drivers of climate change and we can see from our monitoring activities that atmospheric concentrations are continuing to rise with no signs of slowing,” said director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Vincent-Henri Peuch.
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