2020 was Europe’s hottest year on record – EU scientists

SMA NEWS – EU

Europe experienced its hottest year on record last year, while the Arctic suffered a summer of extreme wildfires partly due to low snow cover as climate change impacts intensified, the European Union’s observation service said on Thursday.

As world leaders prepared to brandish their plans to fight climate change at a U.S.-led summit on Thursday, EU scientists issued a stark reminder that the impacts of a warmer world are already here.

Europe’s average annual temperature in 2020 was the highest on record and at least 0.4 degrees Celsius above the next five warmest years — all of which took place in the last decade, the Copernicus Earth observation service said.

“Temperatures are increasing in all seasons in Europe,” said Freja Vamborg, senior scientist at Copernicus.

It was the hottest winter on record, at 3.4 degrees Celsius above the average European winter temperature seen during 1981-2020.