WESTERN EUROPE SETS JUNE-JULY TEMPERATURE RECORD

Western Europe has recorded a new average temperature of 21.62 degrees Celsius for the June-July period, according to the European climate agency Copernicus. The previous record for the same period was set in 2022. Extreme heat began in May and has contributed to widespread wildfires, prolonged drought conditions and thousands of projected heat-related deaths across the region. Italy's Health Ministry placed all 27 of its major cities under the highest heat alert as temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in several countries.

Globally, 2026 ranks as the third-hottest year on record to date, behind 2024 and 2025, according to climate statistics. Last month recorded the highest average sea surface temperature ever documented for July across oceans free of seasonal sea ice, reaching 20.96 degrees Celsius and surpassing the previous July record of 20.89 degrees Celsius set in 2023. Scientists attribute the warming partly to developing El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific. Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, and as soils dried out they lost their natural cooling capacity, allowing temperatures to intensify further.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, stated that the extreme temperatures demonstrate how climate change intensifies heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another. There remains a possibility that 2026 could become the hottest year on record by the end of the year, scientists said, though July's global average surface air temperature of 16.90 degrees Celsius ranked only joint second-warmest for that month, tied with July 2024.