Western Europe Just Logged Its Hottest June and July on Record

PARIS —

Western Europe just came through its hottest June and July since records began, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which said Monday that the average temperature across the region for those two months hit 21.62 degrees Celsius (70.92 Fahrenheit). That beats the previous record set in 2022.

Copernicus called it proof of "the exceptional persistence of heat" this summer, according to Deutsche Welle. Four separate heat waves have hit the region since May, driving a long drought, wildfires and new national heat records, along with what officials expect will be thousands of heat-related deaths, Euronews and Deutsche Welle both reported.

Soil moisture in Western Europe is running well below where it stood in July 2022, the last time the region saw a severe drought, Copernicus said. Major rivers, including the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube, are flowing at unusually low levels, disrupting shipping, irrigation and power generation in several countries, according to Deutsche Welle and Channel NewsAsia.

Dry ground feeds the fires

"Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe; the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought," said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus. "As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily." She added that the pattern shows "how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another."

The fires that dry weather helped spark are still burning. In Albania, firefighters, helicopters and soldiers worked through Sunday to contain a blaze on Mount Kruje, about 24 miles north of the capital, Tirana, according to Euronews. Authorities evacuated residents from several villages near the mountain and arrested a man they suspect started the fire by burning dry grass near his home before strong winds carried it out of control.

In southern Spain, officials evacuated roughly 470 people from Huelva province, between Seville and the Portuguese border, after a fire spread across nearly 4,000 hectares (about 15 square miles), Euronews reported. More than 500 firefighters, including 60 members of Spain's military emergency unit, and around 20 water-bombing aircraft were battling the flames as winds kept shifting. "The fire remains complex," said Antonio Sanz, Andalusia's regional minister for emergencies. "We still have work to do and a tough day ahead."

Oceans are heating up too

Copernicus also recorded the warmest global sea surface temperature ever measured for July, 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 Fahrenheit), topping the 2023 mark. Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo pointed to a strengthening El Nino, a periodic warming of the Pacific that shifts weather patterns worldwide, calling it "very large" and possibly unprecedented, according to Channel NewsAsia.

Globally, July ranked as the second-warmest on record, tied with July 2024. So far 2026 sits third-hottest overall, behind 2024 and 2025, but Buontempo said a new global record could arrive later this year or in early 2027 as El Nino strengthens.