The extreme temperatures that several European countries have faced, especially the southernmost ones, illustrate the multiplication of scorching heat episodes as a consequence of climate change that experts have been warning about. The report published last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) already said that heat waves will be more frequent, more intense and longer. And he predicted that by 2050, about half of the European population could be exposed to high or very high risk of heat stress in summer.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Europe is “the fastest warming region of the world”.
It is also observed in the temperature of the oceans. The IPCC says that marine heat waves doubled in frequency between 1982 and 2016, and since the 1980s they have also become longer and more intense.
The North Atlantic usually begins to warm in March, after winter, and peaks in September. But since April this year records have been broken continuously, and in early August the Mediterranean Sea recorded its highest surface temperature to date at 28.71°C.
Evidence of climate change is seen in the form of heat waves, heavy rainfall, and drought. Spain has experienced its fourth episode of heat wave of the year this week, and in Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, among other countries, extreme temperatures have been recorded, while Greece has been devastated for the second time in a month by large fires.
An early extreme heat wave was recorded in southern and central Europe in mid-June. In France, temperatures of 42°C and 43°C were recorded, and in Austria and Germany records were broken for a month of June. In the third week of July, Rome reached 42.9°C for the first time in its history, and Catalonia, 45.1°C. In fact, July ended up being the hottest month ever recorded on a global scale, which added to the extreme temperatures that are being experienced these days raises doubts about whether or not the summer of 2023 will end up displacing 2022 as the hottest ever recorded. in Europe.
And that milestone was not innocuous. A French-Spanish study (Inserm/ISGlobal) found that more than 60,000 people died from last year's summer heat waves across Europe, with the highest death rates in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal.
It was also Greece and Spain that suffered the most episodes of extreme heat in 2021. From the end of July to the beginning of August, Greece went through what was described as the "worst heat wave since 1987", with highs of 45°C. And in Spain the thermometers exceeded those records in mid-August in various parts of Andalusia and Murcia.
The summer of 2019 was marked by two major heat waves in Europe. On June 28, an absolute record of 46ºC was reached in France. And on July 24 and 25 it was the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom that recorded record temperatures.
In 2018, the high temperatures registered between mid-July and early August were compounded by an intense drought that reduced the level of European rivers such as the Danube and caused major forest fires in Portugal and Spain.
Exceptional were also the temperatures in the summer of 2003 in most Western European countries. Scientific studies estimate that an additional 70,000 deaths due to heat occurred in 16 European countries that summer, with France and Italy leading the way.
