Climate: Heat and floods: 2023 was a 12 months of extremes in Europe | EUROtoday

Many folks in Europa had been confronted with some excessive climate situations and their penalties final 12 months. In 2023, extra days of utmost warmth had been recorded than ever since information started, write the European local weather change service Copernicus and the World Weather Organization (WMO) in a joint report.

The information return to 1940 and in some instances even additional. Overall, relying on the info set, final 12 months was the second warmest or, along with 2020, the warmest 12 months in Europe since information started, based on the report on the state of the local weather in Europe (ESOTC).

“2023 was a complex and multi-layered year when it comes to climate threats in Europe,” stated the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Carlo Buontempo. “We witnessed widespread flooding, but also extreme forest fires with high temperatures and severe droughts.” These occasions not solely put a pressure on pure ecosystems, but additionally posed main challenges to agriculture, water administration and public well being.

According to the report, round 1.6 million folks had been from final 12 months Floods More than half 1,000,000 folks had been affected by storms. The climate and climate-related harm is estimated at properly over 10 billion euros. “Unfortunately, it is unlikely that these numbers will decrease in the near future,” stated Buontempo, referring to advancing local weather change.

High temperatures

Averaged throughout Europe, 11 months had been hotter than common final 12 months. September was even the warmest since information started in 1940. Overall, a report variety of days with so-called excessive warmth stress had been recorded, i.e. temperatures that felt like they exceeded 46 levels. The variety of heat-related deaths has elevated by a median of 30 % over the previous 20 years.

A moist 12 months

Overall, there was seven % extra rain than common final 12 months. It was one of many wettest years recorded up to now, the report says. In a 3rd of the river community in Europe, water volumes had been recorded that exceeded the flood threshold. There had been extreme floods in Italy and Greece, amongst others, and elements of northern Germany had been affected on the finish of the 12 months.

Warm seas and heat mountains

On common, the seas across the European coasts had been hotter than ever since at the least 1980. It was additionally far too heat on the glaciers. “After the record ice loss in 2022, it was another extraordinary year of losses in the Alps,” write Copernicus and WMO. In these two years, the glaciers within the Alps misplaced round ten % of their quantity.

At the identical time, based on the report, the situations for the manufacturing of inexperienced electrical energy in 2023 had been very favorable; at 43 %, its share of the general electrical energy combine was greater than ever earlier than.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:240422-99-760044/2