The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Observatory (C3S), based on its recorded data, said that since records began, the summer of 2021 was the hottest in Europe.
The service has been recording atmospheric data since 1950, and its correspondence to the 19th century. With a data set going back to the middle of the century – Reuters writes. According to the data, in the three summer months of 2021, the average surface air temperature was one degree Celsius higher than the average between 1991 and 2020.
The hottest summers on the continent were previously recorded in 2010 and 2018, with the average temperature in June, July and August 2021 being 0.1°C warmer. August of this year was particularly hot, with temperatures in the eighth month being 0.3 degrees higher than data for the period from 1991 to 2020, and globally, August 2021 was the third hottest month on record.
However, extreme temperatures were not limited to heat; While the Mediterranean and Eastern regions set warm records, lower-than-average temperatures were recorded in several places in the north.
The heat wave peaked on August 11, when 48.8 degrees were measured in Sicily, the highest temperature number ever recorded in Europe, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The intense heat has hit Greece, Spain, Turkey and Italy in particular, with wildfires and forest fires ravaging the region as a result of heat and drought.
But this year was the hottest not only in Europe but also in North America. Temperatures rose above 40 degrees in several places in the United States and Canada. Because of the record heat, the US government has had to impose water restrictions in the Colorado River states that have never been seen before because the watersheds have experienced massive drought.
(Cover photo: A forest fire extinguisher in Greece on August 23, 2021. Photo: Maria Chordari/Getty Images)
