Weather
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth, the EU’s satellite agency has announced. Data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the EU, showed that the global average temperature for June 2019 was the highest on record for the month.
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“This is the hottest June on record in Europe by a country mile, and the warmest June we have ever seen globally.”
The global average temperature was about 0.1C higher than during the previous warmest June, in 2016. Rapid assessment of average temperatures in France between 26-28 June showed a “substantial” increase in the likelihood of the heatwave happening as a result of human-caused global warming, experts at the World Weather Attribution group said. C3S admitted it is difficult to directly link the heatwave to climate change but noted that such extreme weather events are expected to become more common due to global warming.
The recent heatwave saw France record the hottest temperature in the country’s history (45.9C) and major wildfires across Spain, where temperatures exceeded 40C. Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic also recorded their highest temperatures for June last week. The European Satellite Agency said average temperatures were about 2C above normal on the continent, while France, Germany and northern Spain rocketed to a staggering 6C-10C higher than average.
In response to the record-breaking heat, Professor Hannah Cloke, natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading, said: “We knew June was hot in Europe, but this study shows that temperature records haven’t just been broken. They have been obliterated.”
