Europe has also warmed faster overall than any other continent in recent decades. European air temperature over land - anomalies for summer (JJA) 1950–2022, relative to the average for the 1991–2020 reference period. Data source: ERA5, E-OBS.
It shows how Europe has been warming twice as much as the global average since the 1980s, with far-reaching impacts on the region's socio-economic fabric and ecosystems. In 2022, Europe was approximately 2.3 °C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) average used as a baseline for the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Although it is difficult to link individual events to climate change, scientists say that it is fueling more extreme weather events. Heat waves in Europe, for example, are increasing in frequency and intensity at a faster rate than practically anywhere else on the planet.
The extreme temperatures came after climate change and El Nino – a cyclical weather phenomenon that warms the Pacific Ocean – combined to create the hottest June on record. Europe this week also experienced some of its hottest temperatures so far this summer thanks to a so-called heat dome stretching over its south.
Climate change in Europe has resulted in an increase in temperature of 2.3 °C (2022) in Europe compared to pre-industrial levels. Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world. Europe's climate is getting warmer due to anthropogenic activity.
UK Projections
Colder than average winters and summers will become less likely the further we go into the 21st century. A study that included an analysis of snow events found that what was a one-in-50-year snow event in a pre-industrial climate will have almost zero probability of occurring by the end of this century.
Met Office scientists have said that 2022 was the hottest year on record for the U.K., with an annual mean temperature of 10.03 C, or 0.89 C higher than the 1991-2020 average. Other European countries including France and Spain saw similar record highs last year.
Big cities like London are affected by something called an urban heat island (UHI) effect. This happens because “the sun's rays are absorbed by hard surfaces rather than by vegetation such as trees, plants and grass. Radiation from our hard surfaces is released into the air as heat,” says the London Assembly.
"Why does the heat in the UK feel even hotter than when you're abroad?" Dr Karan Raj asked his 4.9 million TikTok followers. "it feels like you're melting!" As for why that is, Dr Raj continued: "The UK can get pretty humid, which means that sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions also mean that higher temperatures are now more common than they have been over the past two decades. That means the average temperature for mid-July has risen, the Met Office said, leading to its changes.
The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service attributed these unusually hot conditions to climate change and suggested that such events are likely to become more frequent, intense and last longer in the future – indicating a concerning trend that may continue this year.
The hottest places in Europe
The hottest place in Europe is Valletta in Malta, with an average daily temperature over the whole year of 22.3ºC. A holiday in Malta is a pretty safe bet almost any time. Athens is second with an annual average of 22ºC. At 21.4ºC, Rome is in third place.
Scientists say Europe's winters are becoming warmer as a result of rising global temperatures, due to human-caused climate change.
UK winters are projected to become warmer and wetter on average, although cold or dry winters will still occur sometimes. Summers are projected to become hotter and are more likely to be drier, although wetter summers are also possible. By 2050, heatwaves like that seen in 2018 are expected to happen every other year.
In the past three decades, the UK has become 0.9C warmer. The 10 hottest years since 1884 have all happened since 2002. And none of the coldest years has been recorded this century. In 2022 the UK smashed its highest temperature record when 40.3C was recorded at Coningsby in Lincolnshire in July.
The Isles of Scilly have the highest mean annual temperature in the United Kingdom of 12.0 degrees Celsius (53.5 degrees Fahrenheit). Not far behind are coastal areas of Southwest and Southeast England, where many low-elevation sites average above 11 °C (52 °F).
Bournemouth is the warmest place to live in the UK, a recent study has shown, although it is closely followed by Brighton and Plymouth.
One Met Office spokesperson has explained exactly why the heat feels so unbearable in the UK, telling MyLondon: "The level of humidity can be higher in the UK than in continental Europe.
In addition to the fact that buildings in the UK aren't designed with hot weather in mind (in fact, many of them are designed to keep heat in, explaining why so many homes feel stuffy at this time of year), the reason why so many of us suffer in the UK could be down to the way we approach a hot day at home compared to ...
“The level of humidity can be higher in the UK than in continental Europe. If humidity is high, it is harder for the human body to keep cool as your sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly,” a spokesperson told MyLondon last week.
The UK has a higher level of humidity than the European continent and “it is harder for the human body to keep cool as your sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly.”
It has increased more over land than over the oceans and has been more than twice as fast in the Arctic. The United Kingdom (UK) is experiencing rising temperatures. The most recent decade (2012 to 2021) has been on average 1.0°C warmer than the 1961 to 1990 average.
The UK's houses are still designed to retain heat. In an age of global warming, that needs to change. Badly designed buildings can have strange consequences.
' If efforts to tackle global heating don't improve, parts of the UK could theoretically average 40C in July 2050, as shown in the Met Office image. But then there will also be individual weather events like today, where heatwaves could reach 45C, or closer to 50C, in 2050.