Almost half of Europe with record annual temperatures in 2024
The number of days with strong, very strong and extreme thermal stress was “the second highest ever recorded”. The study also highlights fires in Portugal and increased rainfall and flooding.
Almost half of Europe will see record annual temperatures in 2024 and 60% of the continent will see more days than average with at least “severe heat stress” due to heat, a report released Tuesday said.
The joint report by the Climate Change Monitoring Service of the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the number of days with strong, very strong and extreme heat stress was “the second highest on record”.
This meant, on average, “almost a month of at least strong heat stress and around 12 tropical nights”, says a Copernicus statement on the State of the European Climate 2024 report.
Thermal ‘stress’ is when the human body’s ability to regulate its temperature is hampered by environmental conditions that are too hot or too cold.
Study highlights fires in Portugal
Copernicus had already reported that in 2024, the hottest year on record, global warming exceeded 1.5°C (degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels for the first time, the desirable limit set out in the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.
The sea surface temperature (SST) in the European region was also the highest ever recorded, 0.7 °C above average, 1.2 °C in the case of the Mediterranean, and the same occurred in European lakes.
Regarding extreme weather conditions, the study refers to forest fires in Portugal, which in September 2024 burned around 110,000 hectares (1,100 square kilometers) in one week, which represents around a quarter of the annual total area burned in Europe.
“An estimated 42,000 people have been affected by wildfires in Europe,” the statement said.
At the same time, the area of Europe with sub-zero temperatures is shrinking, and last year the area with fewer than 90 days of frost was the largest on record , while glaciers in Scandinavia had the highest rate of annual mass loss.
It was the “largest mass loss of any glaciated region in the world”, according to information released by the Copernicus programme.
More rain and floods
The report also highlights the fact that Western Europe had one of the ten wettest years since 1950 and the continent as a whole suffered more floods in 2024 than it has since 2013.
Almost a third of the river network experienced major floods that exceeded at least the floodplain, with storms and floods causing at least 335 deaths and affecting around 413,000 people.
In September, hundreds of thousands of people in Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Italy suffered the consequences of Storm Boris, which caused flooding, massive power outages, disruptions to transport networks and led to mass evacuations of residents in some areas.
Late the following month, torrential rains caused devastating flooding and deaths in the Spanish province of Valencia and neighbouring regions.
Europe is the “fastest warming” continent
The losses caused in Europe last year by extreme weather events were estimated at 18.2 billion euros (13.4 billion in 2023), 85% of which were attributed to flooding.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo says the report highlights that Europe is the “fastest warming” continent and is suffering significant consequences from climate change.
“An additional fraction of a degree of temperature rise matters because it increases the risks to our lives, economies and the planet. Adaptation is essential. That’s why WMO and its partners are stepping up efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services to help decision-makers and society at large become more resilient. We are making progress, but we need to go further and faster, and we need to do it together,” she added, quoted in the statement