The summer of 2022 was Europe’s hottest on record as the continent succumbed to record temperatures and suffered its worst drought in centuries, the European Commission’s satellite monitoring service said Thursday.

Scientists say heatwaves and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said temperatures in Europe were “the hottest on record both in August and during the summer (June-August) in general”.

The data showed that August was the continent’s hottest on record by a “significant margin”, beating the previous record set in August 2021 by 0.4 degrees Celsius.

“A series of strong heatwaves across Europe, combined with unusually dry conditions, has resulted in an extreme summer of record temperatures, drought and wildfires in many parts of Europe that have impacted society and nature in different ways,” said C3S Senior Scientist.

“The data shows that we had record temperatures not only in August in Europe, but throughout the summer, with the previous summer record set in just one year,” Freya Vaborg said.

Globally, August 2022 was the warmest August on record. The average temperature was 0.3 degrees warmer than the monthly average from 1991 to 2020, according to a European agency.

Source: Agence France-Presse.