Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record as a searing heatwave swept across a continent facing increasingly frequent and intense heat extremes, the EU's climate monitor said on Thursday.
The report comes as a new heatwave is battering Europe this week, following a record-breaking one in June and an unusually early spring hot spell in May.
The average temperature in western Europe reached 20.74C in June, more than 3C above the 1991-2020 norm, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. It broke the region's previous record set in June 2025.
"We will see more heatwaves in a warmer world," said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.
"They will be more intense and they will last longer, and they will impact more geographical areas," Burgess told the AFP news agency.
