People bathe in the sunshine at a beach in Brighton, United Kingdom, on May 26, as temperatures continue to soar. GARETH FULLER/AP
Last month ranked as the world's second-warmest May on record, showing how quickly climate extremes have become "the new normal", the European Union's climate monitoring service said.
Western Europe was hit by an early and intense heat wave in May that shattered multiple national records and left people, crops, and ecosystems little time to adapt, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The monitor said the May global average surface air temperature was 15.81 C, which was 0.55 C above the 1991-2020 average. The reading was second only to May 2024 and was 1.42 C above estimated pre-industrial, or 1850-1900, levels.
France, Ireland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom experienced particularly severe conditions, while Spain had 101 heat-related deaths, the highest for the month since monitoring began.
