Increasingly, recent summers are also the warmest on record in recent decades. The year 2022 brought heat waves across Europe, and the drought continued. Data from the Copernicus satellites show that this summer was warmer than the record year 2021.

Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows that the average temperature in Europe from June to August was 0.4 C warmer than the same period in 2021, and August was 0.8 C warmer than August 2018 .

• The history of heat waves in Europe over the last 500 years – Records, deaths and unbearable days

Comparative data refer to the period 1991-2022.

Heat waves are observed in several regions of Europe every summer month. In addition, the heat was in many regions of the world: China, Pakistan and the USA.

• Why heat waves are getting stronger in Europe and why heat waves are so hard to bear

Summer 2022 was the UK’s first ever +40C summer. Records were set in many places in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Why is 40 degrees in the UK an exceptional temperature? The last time, perhaps, it was recorded several thousand years ago

August was warmer than average across much of Europe and, in contrast to June and July, several areas, including Romania, saw more rain than normal.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com