June 2019 is the hottest month ever recorded in Europe and around the world
Environment — di Rudi Bressa
Confirmation comes in the wake of the anomalous heatwave recorded last week. Europe has never experienced a June this hot.
June 2019 is the hottest month ever recorded in Europe and around the world
Confirmation comes in the wake of the anomalous heatwave recorded last week. Europe has never experienced a June this hot.
It was foreseeable. After the anomalous heatwave that struck half of Europe at the end of June, it was simply a matter of waiting for the official data. And now they have arrived: the average European temperature for the month of June was higher than any other June ever recorded. Temperatures were more than 2°C above average and, consequently, June 2019 is the hottest month ever recorded. Meanwhile, at a global level, the average temperature in June 2019 was the highest ever measured, being approximately 0.1°C above the previous highest value recorded in 2016.
The findings are revealed by objective data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Union. A scorching June, even if not as prolonged as the summer of 2018. And certainly driven by the mass of hot air coming from the Sahara Desert, which brought five days of record temperatures decidedly unusual for the time of year — overall "approximately 1°C (higher than) the previous record for the month of June, recorded in 1999, and approximately 1°C higher than expected when looking at the trend of recent decades.
Climate change and the June 2019 heatwaves
Looking at the graphs, there is cause for concern. You don't need to be a physicist or a meteorologist. Visually, the curve climbs upward, with a gradient that grows exponentially. The Copernicus researchers are nonetheless cautious, as is right in such cases. Because weather and climate are, after all, two different disciplines. "Although it is difficult to attribute this heatwave directly to climate change, such extreme weather events are expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm due to rising greenhouse gas concentrations", they write in the official post.
Indeed, as C3S points out, temperature "peaks" of this magnitude have been recorded "several times over the past 150 years; in 1901 and 1917, as well as in 1999, for example. The temperature of June 2019 was exceptional because its peak exceeded the average European temperature of the past hundred years by approximately 1.5°C or more". An increase exceptionally higher than the global average, which stands at "only" 1°C.
Caldissimo!
Here is the Land Surface Temperature measured by the #Copernicus #Sentinel3 🇪🇺🛰 yesterday morning 3’ June
Coraggio ai Vigili del Fuoco, Protezione Civile e Croce Rossa
@emergenzavvf @crocerossa @DPCgov
Here is the Land Surface Temperature measured by the #Copernicus #Sentinel3 🇪🇺🛰 yesterday morning 3’ June
Coraggio ai Vigili del Fuoco, Protezione Civile e Croce Rossa
@emergenzavvf @crocerossa @DPCgov
"Although local temperatures could be lower or higher than those forecast, our data show that temperatures in the south-western region of Europe during the last week of June were unusually high," underlines Jean-Noël Thépaut, head of C3S. "Even if this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change."