The western portion of the European continent experienced the hottest June in recent history, according to data released on Thursday (9/7) by the climate monitoring service of the European Union's Copernicus observatory. The region's average atmospheric temperature was 20.74oC, 3.06oC above the average for the month between 1991 and 2020.
Western Europe had the hottest June in recent history
The western portion of the European continent experienced the hottest June in recent history, according to data released on Thursday (9/7) by the climate monitoring service of the European Union's Copernicus...
In Europe as a whole, June 2026 was the second hottest on record. The average surface temperature was 19.14oC, 1.78oC above the average for the month in the period 1991-2020, and behind only June 2019 (19.23oC).
The intense heat experienced in June was intensified by a strong heat wave that hit most of Western Europe in the 2nd half of the month. According to a study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of climate scientists, such an intense phenomenon would be impossible to happen without climate change.
Countries such as Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom recorded historic heat records. And, once again, they found that their critical infrastructures, such as transport and energy, were not prepared for the increasingly high temperatures of the European summer.
According to Copernicus, the relatively large temperature anomaly in June 2026 is consistent with the strong warming trend observed in the month since the 1980s. Temperature anomalies have become more frequent since 2019: eight of the nine hottest Junes on record in Europe have occurred in the last eight years.
Worldwide, June 2026 also came in 2nd place in the ranking of the hottest Junes on record. The global average atmospheric temperature was 16.54oC – 0.56oC above the June average in the period 1991-2020 and 1.39oC above the pre-industrial average estimated for the month between 1850 and 1900.
In the oceans, last month was also marked by record heat. According to Copernicus, the average sea surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for June, reaching 20.86oC. The data indicates that elevated sea surface temperatures were driven, in part, by much warmer-than-average conditions across much of the tropical Pacific. It is this heat that fuels El Niño, which now has an 81% chance of being very strong, according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (read here).
“Taken together, these records reflect a climate system that continues to accumulate heat,” Copernicus scientist Samantha Burgess told the Guardian. “The result is increasingly intense heat waves, a persistently warm ocean, and increasing risks to people, ecosystems, and infrastructure.”
Copernicus data was also shared by AFP, Al-Jazeera, Financial Times, Folha, g1, New York Times, Reuters and RFI.
Source: ClimaInfo
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