CNN
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The new year has only just begun but Europe has already broken many alarming weather records when extreme heat spread across the continent.
On New Year’s Day, at least eight European countries recorded their warmest January days ever: Liechtenstein, Czech Republic, Poland, Netherlands, Belarus, Lithuania, Denmark and Latvia, according to the report. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks extreme temperatures around the globe. .
It was “the most extreme heatwave in European history,” Herrera told CNN, based on the magnitude of the temperature rise above normal.
Instead, cities are often covered in snow temperature spike to the extent common in the summer. “The real ‘monster’ part of this heatwave is from December 31 to January 1,” Herrera told CNN.
On January 1, Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, recorded its highest temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), the Czech town of Javornik reached 19.6 degrees Celsius (67.3 degrees Fahrenheit), and Jodłownik, a village in Poland, recorded the highest temperature of 19 degrees C. degrees C (66.2 degrees F).
Ukraine also recorded its highest January temperature outside Crimea.
When you consider how far above normal the temperature is, the current weather phenomenon is even more extreme than heat wave that burned most of Europe last summer, Herrera said. And not only is the heat unusually intense, it also extends over a large area, from Europe’s border with Asia to northern Spain.
“For the first time, a heatwave in Europe is comparable to the most intense heatwave ever recorded in North America,” Herrera said.
According to the UK Meteorological Office, the driving force behind the heat in particular is a warm air mass from the west coast of Africa, moving across Europe, bringing unusually warm conditions.
While meteorologists say it is too early to say that these extreme temperatures are caused by climate change, scientists have warned that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. more bouncy.
Rebecca Oakes, a climate scientist at the Met Office, said: “The increase in average global temperatures due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels makes it more likely that temperature records will be lost. break.
The record-high temperatures have alarmed meteorologists, but they have also served to help defuse the energy crisis that has gripped the continent.
The price of natural gas in Europe has skyrocketed since Russia invaded Ukraine, as President Vladimir Putin limited supplies to the continent and many countries reduced their imports from Russia. But this unprecedented wave of warm weather means lower demand for gas, contributing to natural gas prices falling to their lowest levels since Russia’s invasion last February. according to data from Refinitiv.
In Ukraine, unseasonably warm weather has also helped.
“Due to the warm weather, [energy] consumption in Ukraine decreased,” the country’s state-owned electricity operator Ukrenergo Tuesday’s announcement. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian government, tweeted on New Year’s Day: “Putin wants to freeze Ukraine’s allies and defeat Ukraine. Instead, even the weather is on our side.”
But while warm weather can bring relief, meteorologists warn that the spell offers a glimpse of a worrisome future.
Europe has entered “uncharted territory,” Herrera said. “Beating a century-old record by just a few decimal places is one thing, but breaking around 5,000 records in two days, in some cases by more than 5 degrees Celsius, is quite another.”
