Ammon News - Western Europe experienced its warmest June-July period on record, with heat and drought fuelling ​extreme wildfires across the region, the European ‌Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Monday.

"Climate change is increasingly bringing the kinds of hot and dry ​conditions that favour large, high-intensity wildfires in ​southern Europe while extending the fire season ⁠northwards," Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere ​Monitoring Service, said in a statement.

Globally, July temperatures were 1.47 degrees Celsius above the estimated pre-industrial 1850-1900 average, making ​it the second-warmest month on record.

Average June-July temperature ​for western Europe reached 21.62 C — or 2.79 C above ‌average — ⁠surpassing the previous 2022 record.

Sea surface temperature was the highest recorded for July across the extra-polar oceans, partly fuelled by developing El Niño ​conditions in the ​equatorial Pacific.

Exceptionally ⁠low rainfall and soil moisture led to much lower than average ​river levels in Europe, with the Seine, ​Rhine ⁠and Danube particularly impacted.

Critically low levels at major waterways have prompted companies and households to curb ⁠electricity ​use as power plants shut ​down or lowered output while cargo traffic was increasingly restrained.


Reuters