Europe: The World's Fastest-Warming Continent
7 163fjo3 shares a report from the AFP: The latest heatwave sweeping across Europe is a stark reminder that it is the world's fastest-warming continent, stretching into an Arctic that is heating at an even greater pace. Britain, France, Italy and Spain have issued red alerts and health warnings for much of their territory this week as the region endures its second heat episode since May.
Here is a look at why Europe is warming faster than elsewhere: The planet as a whole is around 1.4C warmer than in preindustrial times, defined as 1850-1900. By comparison, Europe is around 2.4C hotter than the preindustrial era, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The long-term rise in global average temperatures is mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, but it varies by regions due to a combination of factors. Land warms faster than the ocean as water can absorb more heat and cool through evaporation.
Shifts in atmospheric circulation have driven more frequent and more intense heatwaves in the European summer, according to Copernicus. High-pressure systems, which bring settled weather and higher temperatures, have become more common in Europe, Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said. [...] Another major reason is geography as Europe is connected to the Arctic, which is 3.2C warmer than in preindustrial times. The region's rising temperatures are partly due to a process known as the albedo feedback. Bright snow and ice reflect much of the sun's heat back into space, but as they melt they reveal darker, heat-absorbing surfaces such as land and the ocean.
In other parts of Europe, areas where snow was very frequent in winter have seen this coverage shrink, exposing dark land. Stricter air quality regulations have reduced aerosol emissions since the 1980s. But tackling the pollutant had the side effect of contributing to global warming, as these tiny airborne particles have a cooling effect by reflecting sunlight and making clouds more reflective.
7 comments
Re:Wasn't it supposed to cool down? (Score: 5, Interesting)
by brunes69 ( 86786 ) on <slashdot@@@keirstead...org> on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @08:02AM (#66207472)
AVERAGE temperature matters.
The gulf stream is a moderator. It keeps Britian and eastern Europe warmer in the winter than it deserves to be, but in the summer, has little effect.
What we are seeing now is a heat dome over the summer. IE, the AVERAGE ANNUAL temperature of Europe is going up, not the daily temperature.
If and when the gulf stream shuts down what will happen is Britian and western Europe will freeze in the winter.. in fact it may start to become covered in ice. Go look at any globe and look at where Britian exists compared to Russia and Canada, it is further north than Labrador. For all rights, it should be fozen in ice all winter. The reason it is mild, is because of the gulf stream.
Right now the real temperature here ... (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Qbertino ( 265505 ) on <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @06:55AM (#66207384)
... in Europe is roughly 5 degrees centigrade above worst case scenarios projected for the year 2050 back in 2016. Germany will likely crack the 40 degree mark in multiple locations at the end of this week. Once again a new heat record. I personally expect this to only get more intense in the next years until perhaps the gulf stream completely shuts down.
These are cascading effects kicking in and ramping up. It wouldn't stop if the planet went net-zero carbon tomorrow. So we're pretty f*cked, as predicted ever since 1970. I'm curious how hard though. Guess we'll find out soon.
Re:Right now the real temperature here ... (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Arrogant-Bastard ( 141720 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @08:20AM (#66207484)
About 25 years ago, I began to take a serious interest in climatology. I started buying textbooks and reading them - and for the most part, that went smoothly, because I could easily understand the math and physics. (I struggled a bit with some of the organic chemistry, and had to spend a couple of years coming up to speed on that.) After a while, I could read all the reports and some of the papers being published, so I made my way through things like the IPCC reports -- which are thousands of pages. Eventually, I got to the point where I could read almost anything published in the field -- but admittedly, some of the material still takes me a long time to get through.
And the single biggest takeaway from all that work is: climatologists, as a field, have been consistently underestimating how bad things are and how bad they're going to get. This is because they're scientists, and all scientists are trained to be conservative in their assessments. Whereas a non-scientist might write "X proves Y", a good scientist will write something like "X suggests that Y may be happening" or the equivalent. This approach implicitly acknowledges uncertainty and the possibility that future work will yield different results: it's how science self-corrects over time.
This mindset is commendable: it shows intellectual honestly. But unfortunately in this particular discipline, at this particular time, it doesn't ring the alarm bells loudly enough. We need a Samuel L. Jackson moment: "The world is on fire, mXXXXrfXXXXXrs" We need radical changes, e.g. all fossil fuel production and consumption must end. We need vast reductions in energy consumption. We need sweeping societal changes, e.g., an end to daily commuting as the norm, it should be an exception. And even if we do all of that, it may still not be enough, because this is an exponential process with a huge amount of momentum -- in other words, we're going to keep sliding up the curve for some period of time even if we do everything that we should have done decades ago.
I've said, for all these years, that I'm not going to live to see the hellscape that's coming - the mass starvation, the killer megastorms, the wars over water, the refugee crises, the political, economic, and societal chaos. Now I'm not so sure.
Re:Century old homes and no A/C....hurts. (Score: 5, Informative)
by gtall ( 79522 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @07:52AM (#66207464)
Growing up in Buffalo, our next door neighbor would always put in a skating rink, wood frame, polyethylene liner. It was great, we played hockey all winter long.
Now, you'd be silly thinking you get any decent spell of cold enough weather in Buffalo for that skating rink.
Another data point, bugs that didn't use to inhabit Michigan have discovered it is now warm enough in the winter to not freeze off their little hinies, so now they are ready to go come spring for all those nice fruit trees.
The fish in the Atlantic north of the equator have decided to vote with their fins and move north. Fishermen along the East Coast complain they must now use more petrol chasing their asses north in order to catch them.
Tropical diseases have been moving north in the U.S.
Now, don't forget, global warming is a hoax perpetrated by Haitian immigrant pets trying to eat Ohioans. I hear they like to roast them with a delicate seasoning on the barbie before chowing down.
It's all the immigrants. (Score: 5, Funny)
by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @10:00AM (#66207604)
I mean, they're flooding across the borders at the same time as the temperature is rising. That's got to be causal, right? And a lot of them are darker than most white folks. Everybody knows dark bodies retain more heat - there's your mechanism. Albedo's a bitch, am I right? Letting your daughter bring one into your home definitely means you need air conditioning.
Re:Hot or cold? Make your minds up! (Score: 5, Informative)
by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @06:57AM (#66207386)
The UK wasn't built to survive hot, humid weather. We need urgent reform of planning laws so that people can fix their homes with things like exterior shutters on windows. The push to install heat pumps should focus on air-to-air with cooling capability.
In Japan, where they have hot and humid months, the advice is to design your house for the summer. You will be a bit cold in winter, but that's far better than being extremely hot and humid in the summer.
Re:Hot or cold? Make your minds up! (Score: 5, Informative)
by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @06:59AM (#66207388)
Either you misunderstood what they wrote or the writer - deliberately or not - misrepresented the process.
The Gulf Stream is a wind system starts some place around Florida, then heads NW across the Atlantic towards Britain and nearby countries, then onwards to Scandinavia before circling westwards and then S along the E coast of Canada and the US.
The air stream which arrives in Britain has been warmed up (winter) or cooled down (summer) on its way across the Atlantic, it has also accumulated a lot of moisture on the journey. This is where Britain's reputation for wet weather originates, although that applies more in western areas (Ireland, Wales, W England and W Scotland) than on the E side of England and Scotland. The high pressure systems affecting Britain and Western Europe are leading to more extreme weather with less precipitation. There is a high pressure system affecting the weather in the region right now and it has funnelled hot, humid air from N Africa to the region. Hot and dry, apart from the occasional thunderstorm. This is supposed to peak this coming weekend and drop away at the start of next week - it should be a lot cooler with some much needed rain.