Europe is boiling under the effect of climate change: historical temperature records

The heat wave that affected Europe at the end of June brought a series of historical records, from extreme temperatures on land to unprecedented warming of the oceans. Data published by national meteorological services and the European Copernicus observatory confirm an accelerated warming trend, which the scientific community directly links to climate change and the imminent installation of the El Niño phenomenon.

• England had its hottest June on record

England recorded its hottest June since meteorological measurements began, according to provisional data published by the British meteorological service Met Office and cited by AFP. The average temperature in June reached 17.1 degrees Celsius, exceeding the previous record of 16.9 degrees, set a year ago. June 2026 also ranked second in the ranking of the hottest Junes on record in Wales and the entire United Kingdom, where systematic weather observations have been made since 1884. The heatwave culminated in a temperature of 37.7 degrees Celsius recorded in Lingwood, Norfolk, after the daily record for June was broken for three consecutive days. The extreme temperatures forced the closure of some schools, put pressure on the power system and prompted authorities to issue maximum warnings for the east and south-east of England for three consecutive days. A similar alert had only been issued once before, in July 2022. Emily Carlisle, a researcher at the Met Office, said that the exceptional temperatures in June were part of a wider trend, highlighting that almost every month in 2026 was warmer than the climatological average.

• Austria beats old records by over one degree Celsius

Austria also experienced its longest heatwave ever recorded in June. According to the national weather service GeoSphere Austria, the new records did not exceed the old values by just a few tenths of a degree, but by an average of 1.4 degrees Celsius, a difference considered remarkable by climatologists. In most regions located below an altitude of 800 meters, temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius persisted for between ten and fourteen days. At the same time, about half of the country's 277 weather stations recorded temperatures of at least 35 degrees. The heatwave also occurred at night. At the Jubilaumswarte station in Vienna, a new record was set for the warmest night in the history of measurements, with a minimum temperature of 27.3 degrees Celsius. In the high Alpine regions, temperatures were about five degrees above the 1991-2020 average and seven degrees above the 1961-1990 average.

• Spain records dramatic toll: over a thousand deaths attributed to heatwave

Spain continues to confirm the accelerating warming trend. The national meteorological agency (Aemet) announced that the first semester of 2026 was the warmest in the history of measurements that began in 1961, with the average temperature being 1.6 degrees Celsius above normal. June ranked second in the list of the warmest June months in the country's history, surpassed only by 2025. The consequences for the population, however, are much more serious. The Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid estimates that 1,028 people died in June due to extreme temperatures, more than twice as many as in the same period last year. The estimates are made through the MoMo (Mortality Monitoring) system, which compares actual mortality with expected statistical values and correlates them with the evolution of temperatures provided by Aemet.

• Scientists: climate change made this heat wave possible

The international group World Weather Attribution estimates that the intensity of the current heat wave cannot be explained without the influence of climate change caused by human activity. According to researchers, such extreme temperatures recorded since June would have been practically impossible about half a century ago. Most climatologists believe that greenhouse gas emissions increase both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena.

• The world's oceans are reaching unprecedented temperatures

Alarm signals are not only coming from land. The European observatory Copernicus Marine Service announced that the planet's oceans recorded the highest average temperature for a June in history. The ocean surface temperature reached 20.98 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in 2024. According to the director of the Copernicus Ski Service Climate change expert Carlo Buontempo says the current situation could mark the beginning of a new climate phase, characterised by successive records. Experts warn that the imminent onset of the El Niño phenomenon, combined with global warming, could turn 2026 into one of the warmest years ever recorded. Oceanographer Simon van Gennip, from Mercator Ocean International, believes that current ocean temperatures are setting the stage for new records in the coming months, even if the exact extent of the phenomenon cannot yet be estimated.

• Mediterranean almost completely covered by heat waves

Copernicus data shows that around 82% of the world's oceans have been affected by marine heat waves this year. The Mediterranean Sea is among the most affected regions, with almost its entire surface area affected by this phenomenon in the first half of the year. In June, the average temperature of the Mediterranean reached a new record of 24.34 degrees Celsius. The Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona has reported that the northwestern Mediterranean has experienced an unprecedented episode, with water temperatures more than five degrees Celsius above normal. According to researchers, these heat waves are seriously affecting marine ecosystems, causing mortality among corals, sea urchins and mollusks, but also favoring the occurrence of extreme weather phenomena, by transferring additional energy to the atmosphere.

Specialists warn that the warming of the oceans contributes both to the rise in sea levels and to the intensification of torrential rains, storms and cyclones, confirming that the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly visible on a global scale.