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Europe faces African heatwave, breaking historical records! Scientists warn: This is the "new normal"
2026-06-10 08:50:17 / MISTERE&KURIOZITETE
Records were broken in Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal last month, while a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across western Europe.
Europe experienced one of the hottest Mays ever recorded last month, under an unusually early heatwave that the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service warned was becoming the "new normal".
It was the second hottest May ever recorded globally, and Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal broke their own records as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across western Europe.
"The month was marked by a rapid transition from much colder than average conditions to one of the most intense heat waves ever observed at this early stage of the year in Western Europe," the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its May bulletin.
"The unusually early and intense heat wave shows how quickly climate extremes are becoming the new normal rather than the exception," said Samantha Burgess, climate strategy lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.
"Sensitive" temperatures reached 35 to 40 degrees Celsius in large parts of Europe, Copernicus said.
"The rapid transition is likely to have increased impacts on populations, leaving little time for people, as well as crops and ecosystems, to acclimatize to much higher temperatures," he said.
Globally, the average surface air temperature reached 15.81°C, second only to May 2024, according to Copernicus.
The average sea surface temperature was also the second highest ever recorded, after May 2024, as conditions shift towards the warming El Niño weather pattern.
Forecasts warn that the coming El Niño could be one of the strongest ever recorded, pushing global temperatures to historic levels by 2027.
Temperatures remained at "exceptionally high levels" in part of the tropical Pacific, Copernicus said.
El Niño has an 80% chance of developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said last week.
The recent El Niño contributed to 2023 being the second hottest year ever recorded and 2024 being the highest temperature of all time.
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