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Record heatwaves scorch Europe: Why is the continent warming so rapidly?
🇷🇸 Serbia /Disasters & Emergencies

Record heatwaves scorch Europe: Why is the continent warming so rapidly?

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • Europe is experiencing record-breaking extreme heat waves, causing fatalities.
  • A "heat dome" from North Africa is trapping hot air, leading to unusually high temperatures across the continent.
  • Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, with average temperatures rising 2.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era.

Europe is grappling with extreme heat waves that are shattering records and claiming lives, prompting urgent questions about the continent's rapid warming. Much of Western Europe, from the UK and Ireland to Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, is currently enduring an intense heatwave with unseasonably high temperatures.

Temperatures of this scale were once an exception even in mid-summer.

— Friderike OttoProfessor of climate science at Imperial College London, commenting on the intensity of the current heatwave.

This unusual early-summer heat is attributed to a "heat dome," a powerful, slow-moving high-pressure system originating from North Africa. This system traps hot air over Europe, akin to a lid on a boiling pot. According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, such atmospheric patterns have become more frequent over the past 25 years, contributing to increasingly intense heatwaves.

Scientists note that temperatures of this magnitude were once rare, even in mid-summer. Friderike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, stated that this record heat clearly bears the mark of climate change. While precise attribution for this specific event is ongoing, previous analyses of European heatwaves since 2003 by the World Weather Attribution initiative, co-founded by Otto, show that such extreme weather has become significantly more probable and intense due to human-caused climate change.

This record heat clearly bears the mark of climate change.

— Friderike OttoProfessor of climate science at Imperial College London, commenting on the intensity of the current heatwave.

The latest European State of the Climate report indicates that at least 95% of the continent experienced temperatures above the annual average in 2025. Intense heatwaves, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, have been felt even north of the Arctic Circle, and sea surface temperatures have reached record highs. Europe is warming at twice the global average rate, with average temperatures rising 2.5 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, compared to a global average increase of 1.4 degrees.

Europe is the continent that is warming the fastest, and the consequences are already serious.

— Florian PapenbergerDirector of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, discussing the implications of rapid warming in Europe.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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