World sees second hottest May as Europe faces 'new normal': EU monitor
The world experienced its second-hottest May on record, with Europe baking under an unusually early heatwave as climate extremes become the "new normal" on the continent, the EU's climate monitor said on June 10.
Records were broken in Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal last month as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across western Europe.
"The month was marked by a rapid transition from much cooler-than-average conditions to one of the most intense heatwaves ever observed this early in the year in western Europe," the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its May bulletin.
The "unusually early and intense heatwave demonstrates how quickly climate extremes are becoming the new normal rather than the exception", said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.
