New data from Copernicus, Europe's climate monitoring service, revealed that Europe and polar regions were the areas hit the hardest by global warming last year.
Global Warming in Europe in 2022
Europe in experienced scorching heat last year due to climate change. The continent is reportedly cooler in October, but last year the temperature was above 2C.
The western continent was extremely hot, and colder weather in northern and eastern countries observed an overall drop to the second warmest in Europe, BBC reported.
According to Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, they are already experiencing climate change. She noted that Europe experienced heat waves during summer, spring and autumn. She was even convinced that the people would remember the heatwave over the New Year's period. She noted that heat waves hit the continent all year round, not just in summer.
Temperatures in Europe have risen more than twice as much as in the rest of the world over the past 30 years.
Why Europe is Getting Warmer Faster Compared to Other Continents
The pace of temperature increase on the European continent is the highest in the world, according to the Copernicus service.
Researchers claim that several factors are to blame for the warming of Europe. The continent is becoming warmer due to the land areas warming more quickly than the oceans. It is also situated near the Arctic, warming at a rate around four times the world average, which is another issue.
Ice reflects light more and absorbs it less, which is another factor. When ice melts, it exposes darker sections of land or the sea, increasing sunlight absorption, which leads to warming.
Aside from Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and China also experienced significant record heat events, with heatwave conditions in Pakistan and parts of India.
Once more, temperatures in the two polar regions reached record highs, rising more than 2C above the average between 1991 and 2020 in some locations.
Temperatures rose 3C above usual in northwest Siberia.
The temperature at Vostok in Antarctica reached -17.7C, the warmest reading in the 65-year history of the weather station.
In September, the center of Greenland recorded values that were 8C higher than average. The temperature in the continent is getting close to the 1.5C threshold of the Paris climate change agreement.
Considering the current emission level and warming level, Burgess predicted that by early 2030, the continent would hit 1.5C.
Winter Feels Like Summer in Europe
High temperatures have been recorded in Europe over the new year, prompting activists to pressure the government to take action against climate change. Hungary registered its warmest Christmas Eve in Budapest, and the country saw temperatures climbing to 18.9 degrees Celsius on New Year, Reuters reported.
In France, the night of Dec. 30 to Dec. 31 was the warmest since the record began; temperatures climbed to nearly 25C in the southwest on Jan. 1. ManyEuropean ski resortse lost customers due to a lack of snow.
The temperature at Bilbao airport in Spain's Basque country reached 25.1C. According to Eusebio Folgeira, 81, a resident in Bilbao, it always rains in their area and is usually cold. However, January feels like summer this time.
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