2022 was Europe’s hottest summer but warmer years are likely to come

Europe skilled its hottest summer time on document in 2022 and its second warmest yr ever, in line with the European State of the Climate report. The annual report, launched at the moment, additionally reveals that temperatures throughout Europe are rising at twice the worldwide common, with the continent having skilled 2.2°C of warming since pre-industrial occasions.

The figures, which come from a number of information units together with satellite tv for pc, in situ measurements and numerical climate prediction fashions, match into the broader international heating pattern, with international information exhibiting that the previous eight years have been the warmest on document.

The chance of getting a hotter yr, each globally and in Europe, is rising yearly because of rising ranges of greenhouse gases, says Samantha Burgess on the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which compiled the info for the report.

“If you imagine a deck of cards where the black cards are cooler years and the red ones warmer years, then the global heating effect is like removing black cards from the deck every year and replacing them with red ones,” says Burgess.

No nook of Europe escaped unscathed from the acute circumstances of 2022. In western Europe, peak summer time temperatures have been as a lot as 10°C higher than typical and, for the primary time on document, temperatures within the UK reached 40°C.

Across southern Europe, heatwave circumstances resulted in a document variety of days with very sturdy warmth stress: temperatures that really feel between 38°C and 46°C (100 and 115°F).

The excessive temperatures and lengthy sunshine hours resulted in floor ozone concentrations reaching probably dangerous ranges throughout a lot of Europe. Average sea floor temperatures throughout Europe’s seas have been the warmest on document in 2022 and practically three-quarters of its lakes have been hotter than common.

The unprecedented excessive temperatures and low rainfall – 10 per cent lower than common – led to widespread drought, ensuing within the second lowest river movement and the second largest wildfire burn space on document for Europe.

Effects on colder areas have been additionally vital. A scarcity of snow together with the unusually heat summer time triggered document melting of Alpine glaciers, which misplaced greater than 5 cubic kilometres of ice – equal to dropping in peak by 3.5 metres.

It was an identical story within the Arctic, with information exhibiting that 2022 was the sixth warmest yr on document there and the Svalbard area skilled its warmest summer time on document, with some areas seeing temperatures 2.5°C above common. Meanwhile, distinctive September heatwaves throughout Greenland resulted in record-breaking ice sheet soften.

For each the Arctic and Europe, atmospheric circulation patterns performed a key function in producing the extremes of 2022, with steady high-pressure circumstances over western Europe producing heat, dry and sunny circumstances. By autumn, a sequence of “rivers” within the ambiance introduced heat and moisture to Greenland in September.

“The findings are all consistent with warming of climate due to the heating effect from our emissions of greenhouse gases,” says Richard Allen on the University of Reading, UK. “Land warms faster than ocean, but this can only explain some of the excessive warming seen in recent years over Europe, compared to other continents.”

Other drivers embrace Arctic warming and lack of ice and snow in European mountain areas, decreasing the quantity of photo voltaic vitality mirrored again to area, says Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

An El Niño local weather sample is anticipated to reach later this yr, which is more likely to convey excessive international temperatures, however its hyperlink with European local weather is comparatively weak and it received’t essentially drive up European temperatures.