The heatwave hitting Europe continues to take its toll. The UK recorded its highest temperature ever recorded last Tuesday (19), with thermometers registering 40.2°C.
According to the Met Office, the UK's official weather body, this was the first time the country had recorded temperatures above 40°C. “For the first time, 40°C has been temporarily exceeded in the UK, with London Heathrow Airport reporting a temperature of 40.2°C at 12:50 today,” she said.
The previous record was 38.7 degrees Celsius, which was recorded during the summer of 2019. This shows how unprecedented the current heat wave hitting Europe is. “It is a wake-up call to the climate emergency,” Professor Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading, said in a statement on Monday to the UK Science Media Centre.
Heat wave in Europe
According to data released by the Copernicus Emergency and Management Service, the continent is warming faster than other parts of the world, with temperatures averaging 2.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This level of global warming exceeds the 1.5 degree Celsius limit set by the global community to reduce environmental imbalance.
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In parts of Europe, satellites captured images of devastating fires during the heat wave. Firefighters have received several calls to fire fires in Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Portugal. In Spain, more than 500 deaths were recorded due to high temperatures.
2020 was the hottest year globally, but the summer of 2021 was the year with the highest average temperatures on the European continent. In this case, average temperatures reached 1.2 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, according to the management service.
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