June Was the Hottest Month Ever Recorded: 'We Are Likely to See More of These Events'
June 2019 was a record-breaking scorcher for the entire planet — especially Europe.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts announced the numbers on Tuesday, citing data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the ECMWF’s Earth observation program on behalf of the European Union.
The data indicated that average temperatures across Europe were more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal after a mass of hot air came in from the Sahara Desert.
June 25-29 were particularly toasty days, and the month’s temperatures beat out the previous record, set in June 1999, by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the ECMWF’s statement read.
Worldwide, June 2019 was the hottest-ever June on record, edging out June 2016 by 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit.
The center’s data also compared the temperatures to those recorded in June from 1981 to 2010 and found that France and Germany, northern Spain, northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic’s temperatures were 10.8 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual.
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“Although local temperatures may have been lower or higher than those forecast, our data show that the temperatures over the southwestern region of Europe during the last week of June were unusually high,” Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of C3S, said in a statement. “Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change.”
Meanwhile, all-time June records in Western Europe were also smashed as temperatures in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland reached past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“When summer temperatures are routinely in the 70s, like in northern Europe or the West Coast of the U.S., many places do not have air conditioning,” CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller explained. “This can turn deadly fast if heat waves strike and last for several days.”
Records in Austria, France, Spain and Switzerland were also shattered, according to The Weather Channel.
