Report Shows 2019 was Europe’s Hottest Year on Record

New data has confirmed that last year was the hottest year on record in Europe.

There were periods of extraordinary heat in February, June, and July, while November 2019 was one of the wettest Novembers ever recorded.

According to the European State of the Climate 2019 report, the previous records were only marginally broken, but the past two decades have still seen 11 out of 12 of the warmest years ever recorded in Europe.

Towards the latter end of 2019, western and southern Europe experienced four times the usual amount of rainfall, whereas central Europe experienced a drought over the summer.

Although the European Arctic was measured to be slightly colder than previous years throughout 2019, there was record levels of surface melting in Greenland due to a heatwave.

Since 1997, the glaciers in Europe have lost 16 tonnes of fresh water per square meter on average.

The report says that France and Germany experienced record-breaking heatwaves in 2019, with summer temperatures in some parts of the continent being 3C to 4C above the usual level.

The director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service which produced the European State of the Climate 2019 report, Carlo Buontempo, said: “One exceptional warm year does not constitute a warming trend, but with detailed information from our operational services, that covers many different aspects of our climate, we are able to connect the dots to learn more about how it is changing”.

The data from the report corroborates the findings from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The WMO produced its own report showing a warming trend across the globe, with the temperature of the oceans in 2019 being the highest on record.

The secretary-general of the WMO, Petteri Taalas, said that there would be a temporary drop in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, however it will become harder to help those affected most by the climate crisis.

Taalas warns that overlooking the climate emergency will have a greater overall impact than the COVID-19 crisis: “Whilst Covid-19 has caused a severe international health and economic crisis, failure to tackle climate change may threaten human wellbeing, ecosystems and economies for centuries.

“We need to flatten both the pandemic and climate change curves. We need to show the same determination and unity against climate change as against Covid-19. We need to act together in the interests of the health and welfare of humanity, not just for the coming weeks and months but for many generations ahead”.