Climate change is affecting Europe, especially Portugal and Spain.
We just started to notice the highs temperatures with the beginning of summer, and perhaps this is only the beginning, because researchers even place 2023 as the one that could be the hottest in history.
And it’s official, Europe had the summer warmest on record last year, contributing to thousands of deaths and extreme natural events.
“The continent warmed 2.3°C above the pre-industrial average”, so says a joint report by the World Meteorological Organization and the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union.
And in addition, sea surface temperatures reached record levels and there was also unprecedented melting of glaciers.
The consequences of the heat
All weather hazards recorded last year, including heat waves, caused 16,365 deaths and caused $2 billion worth of damage.
“The summer was the hottest on record: high temperatures exacerbated severe and widespread drought conditions, fueled violent wildfires that resulted in the second-largest burned area on record, and led to thousands of excess heat-associated deaths“, said Petteri TaalasWMO Secretary General.
And it is that Europe He faces some difficult years: “This measure of 2.3 degrees of climate change in Europe is shocking news“, said william collins, Professor of Climate Processes at the University of Reading in the UK. “The traditional focus on global temperatures tends to overlook the fact that in Europe the rate of warming may be close to twice the global average.”.
However, it states that other countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain had their warmest year on record in 2022 and the overall annual average temperature was between the second and fourth highest on record. It also highlights that it was the fourth consecutive year of drought for Portugal and Spain.