Klima: Juni und Juli waren in Westeuropa so warm wie noch nie
Mehrere Hitzewellen haben die Temperaturen vielerorts auf Rekordwerte getrieben – vor allem in Westeuropa. Und die Meere erreichen bisher ungekannte globale Höchstwerte.
In June and July, Western Europe experienced temperatures like never before, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service in Bonn. The average temperature for the region, which includes Germany, was 21.62 degrees, 2.79 degrees above the 1991-2020 June average. However, the service notes a significant temperature difference between Western and Eastern Europe, as well as Scandinavia, which was much cooler.
Germany's data shows the southwest was considerably warmer than the northeast. Overall, July 2024 was the 11th warmest on record for the entire continent, with a global average temperature of 20.49 degrees, which ranks only 12th. Globally, July 2024 was the second warmest on record, only 0.05 degrees behind 2023. The record holder remains July 2023 at 16.95 degrees.
July 2024 was globally 1.47 degrees above the pre-industrial July level. The service also highlights the unusually prolonged heat since late spring, with four heatwaves in May, which is exceptionally high for the region. The data used by Copernicus dates back to 1950, with some earlier data also available. Extreme drought continued in many European regions, with July being drier than the average in many areas.
The moisture content of the soil surface was notably lower in July than in the last dry July in 2022. Low water levels in rivers were also unusually low in many dry regions, with the Seine, Rhine, and Danube rivers being particularly affected.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
