Copernicus confirms: warmest June ever recorded in Western Europe

June 2026 was the warmest ever recorded in Western Europe, according to the monthly report published by Copernicus, the European climate monitoring service. The data comes in the context in which the continent is facing increasingly frequent and intense heat waves, amid climate change, reports AFP. The report is published during the third episode of heatwave affecting Europe this year, after the extreme wave in June, which set numerous records, and the unusually early one in May. According to Copernicus, the average temperature in Western Europe reached 20.74 degrees Celsius in June, more than three degrees above the average for the 1991-2020 period, surpassing the previous record set in June 2025. Globally, June 2026 was the second warmest June ever recorded, the same position being occupied at the level of the whole of Europe. According to the European service, global warming caused by human activity continues to influence the evolution of temperatures. In recent days, several European countries have reported new climate records. Spain recorded the warmest first half of a year in the history of meteorological measurements, and France recorded the warmest month of June.

• Record temperatures also in the oceans

The report shows that the oceans also recorded the highest temperatures ever measured for the month of June, amid the formation of the El Niño phenomenon, which is developing in the tropical Pacific and could become more intense in the coming months. "Climate change is moving from the status of a future, abstract and statistical problem, to a concrete reality, affecting everyday life," Samantha Burgess, strategic climate officer at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the institution that manages Copernicus, told AFP.

According to her, Europe is warming at a faster rate than the global average, one of the explanations being changes in atmospheric circulation. "These changes indicate that such episodes will become more frequent. We will have more heat waves, more intense, longer and affecting increasingly large areas,” Burgess warned, reiterating the need to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, the average temperature in June was 1.39 degrees Celsius above the level estimated for the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), according to Copernicus.

• The heat wave had major effects on health and the environment

June was marked in Europe by the installation of a "heat dome”, a persistent high-pressure system that favored extreme temperatures for several days.

Copernicus shows that the heat wave had major effects on the health of the population, being associated with thousands of deaths, especially in France, Spain and Belgium. According to an AFP analysis, around 410 million Europeans, or more than two-thirds of the continent's population, were exposed to temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius between June 15 and 30. At the same time, the Mediterranean Sea recorded a new record for water temperature, and large areas of the Atlantic coast were affected by a marine heat wave, with effects on ecosystems. The drought favored the outbreak and spread of vegetation fires in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, and the effects were also felt in fisheries and other economic sectors, according to Copernicus. In turn, the international network of climatologists World Weather Attribution assessed last month that the June heat wave episode was the most intense ever recorded in Europe. According to researchers, such an event would have been practically impossible in the absence of climate change generated by human activity. They estimate that, under the climatic conditions of 2003, temperatures would have been about two degrees Celsius lower.