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

Europe skilled its hottest summer season on report in 2022 and its second warmest 12 months ever, based on the European State of the Climate report. The annual report, launched in the present day, 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 knowledge units together with satellite tv for pc, in situ measurements and numerical climate prediction fashions, match into the broader world heating development, with world knowledge displaying that the previous eight years have been the warmest on report.

The chance of getting a hotter 12 months, each globally and in Europe, is rising yearly resulting from rising ranges of greenhouse gases, says Samantha Burgess on the Copernicus Local weather Change Service, which compiled the info for the report.

“If you happen to think about a deck of playing cards the place the black playing cards are cooler years and the crimson ones hotter years, then the worldwide heating impact is like eradicating black playing cards from the deck yearly and changing them with crimson ones,” says Burgess.

No nook of Europe escaped unscathed from the intense situations of 2022. In western Europe, peak summer season temperatures had been as a lot as 10°C higher than typical and, for the primary time on report, temperatures in the UK reached 40°C (104°F).

Throughout southern Europe, heatwave situations resulted in a report variety of days with very sturdy warmth stress – temperatures that really feel between 38°C and 46°C (100°F and 115°F).

The excessive temperatures and lengthy sunshine hours resulted in floor ozone concentrations reaching probably dangerous ranges throughout a lot of Europe. Common sea floor temperatures throughout Europe’s seas had been the warmest on report in 2022 and about three-quarters of its lakes had been hotter than common, says the report.

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 report for Europe.

Results on colder areas had been additionally vital. An absence of snow together with the unusually heat summer season brought about report melting of Alpine glaciers, which misplaced greater than 5 cubic kilometres of ice – equal to dropping in peak by 3.5 metres.

It was the same story within the Arctic, based on the report, with knowledge displaying that 2022 was the sixth warmest 12 months on report there and the Svalbard area skilled its warmest summer season on report, with some areas seeing temperatures 2.5°C above common. In the meantime, 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 situations over western Europe producing heat, dry and sunny situations. By autumn, a sequence of “rivers” within the ambiance introduced heat and moisture to Greenland in September.

“The findings are all according to warming of local weather as a result of heating impact from our emissions of greenhouse gases,” says Richard Allan on the College of Studying, UK. “Land warms quicker than ocean, however this will solely clarify among the extreme warming seen in recent times over Europe, in comparison with different continents.”

Different drivers embody Arctic warming and the lack of ice and snow in European mountain areas, which reduces the quantity of photo voltaic vitality mirrored again to house, says Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Local weather Change Service.

An El Niño climate pattern is anticipated to arrive later this year, which is more likely to carry excessive world temperatures, however its hyperlink with European local weather is comparatively weak and it received’t essentially drive up European temperatures.