Europe experienced a high level of extreme weather events — such as storms, heatwaves and floods — in 2024, a report from EU earth-monitoring service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) found today.
"Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, and southern Europe is seeing widespread droughts", while changes in precipitation patterns, "including an increase in the intensity of the most extreme events" has been observed, the report found. Europe experienced last year the "most widespread flooding since 2013", it added.
The extreme weather events "pose increasing risks to Europe's built environment and infrastructure… and urgent action is needed", the WMO and Copernicus said.
Last year was the hottest on record, both for Europe and globally. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, the report noted. The global surface air temperature has increased by around 1.3°C since the 1850-1900 period, while Europe's surface air temperature over land has risen by 2.4°C over the same period, the report found. The Paris climate agreement seeks to limit the rise in global temperature to "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to 1.5°C. Climate scientists use 1850-1900 as a baseline pre-industrial period.
The WMO and Copernicus also flagged "a pronounced east-west contrast" in weather conditions across Europe last year. Western Europe experienced above-average precipitation, while conditions across most of eastern Europe were drier than average. Southeastern Europe in particular experienced "record-breaking numbers" of "strong heat stress" days — those with a "feels-like" temperature of 32°C or higher — and tropical nights in 2024. Nights during which the temperature does not fall below 20°C are classified as tropical.
Monitoring from agencies such as Copernicus and the WMO form a central basis of multilateral climate talks such as the annual UN Cop summits, and mid-year UN climate talks which take place in Bonn, Germany each June.
