Hottest October on record in Europe

Last month was the hottest October on record in Europe. Temperatures across most of Europe were two degrees above average between 1991 and 2020, reports Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Only in Iceland and Turkey were temperatures just below average.

Europe was 1.92 degrees warmer than the October average between 1991 and 2020 and 0.5 degrees warmer than the previous record high heat in October 2020.

Record heat was also recorded in Canada and temperatures were above average in Greenland and Siberia. In Australia, eastern Russia and parts of Antarctica, it was colder than average in October.

Samantha Burgess of Copernicus, in a tweet about Copernicus news, refers to the UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which started on Sunday.

This month, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that Europe has warmed faster than the rest of the world over the past 30 years. The organization writes that in a report in collaboration with the European climate agency Copernicus. The report “The state of the climate in Europe in 2021” is the first edition of an annual report from the two organisations.

Figures for 2021 show that temperatures in Europe have risen more than twice as much in the past 30 years as on other continents.

The hot month of October contributes to the drought in parts of Europe, such as in the Spanish nature reserve Donanawhere the wetlands have completely dried up.

In other countries in Europe, there was more rain than usual in October, writes Copernic.

Scientists do not doubt that the climate is changing, in particular due to human actions. But some people keep contradicting this, Nieuwsuur investigated why: