Berlin – The year 2024 was the warmest in Europe Since there are records, according to the joint service report Climate Change of Copernicus (C3S) and of the World Meteorological Organization (OMM) Published on Tuesday, which also pays special attention to climatic phenomena such as DANA in Valencia.
In almost half of Europe, in particular in the central, oriental and southeast regions, record temperatures were measured last year, according to the six sets of data used, with anomalies of up to 2-3 ° C above the average in some parts, including southern Spain.
According to the C3S data set, last year the European average temperature stood 1.5 ° C.
In addition, last year the temperature of the sea surface in Europe was the highest recorded, 0.7 ºC above the average and in the Mediterranean up to 1.2 ºC above.
Experts recalled that Europe is heating at a rate that doubles global speed and pointed out that 45% of last year were much warmer than average.
The report on the European climate (ESOTC) status of 2024 also emphasizes the contrast between drought and the shortage of rainfall in Eastern Europe and moisture in the western part of the continent, where 2024 was one of the rainiest years since 1950.
The phenomena such as storms and floods – among which the Dana de Valencia highlighted – at least 335 lives were charged and affected some 413,000 people.
“The report shows that Europe is severely beaten by climate change,” the Vice President of the Earth Observation Unit of the European Commission (CE), Elisabeth Hamdouch said during the presentation at a virtual press conference.
The risk of flooding, increasing
The study pays attention to the extreme phenomena associated with Borrasca Boris, which caused victims and damage in eight countries in Central and East Europe in September, and the Dana that hit the Valencian Community and other surrounding Spanish regions in October.
As explained by Samantha Burgess, of the European Center for Middle Term weather (CEPMPM), during the DANA, the national records of total rainfall in one, six and 12 hours were beaten, while the maximum total measured in 24 hours reached 771.8 millimeters, the second highest measured in Spain.
The intensity of rainfall is probably related to climate change, both Burgess and Carlo Buontempo, the C3S director, pointed out, since the highest temperature of the atmosphere and the sea surface encourages the accumulation of water vapor in the clouds.
The report recalled that according to the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC), Europe is one of the regions with the greatest planned increase in the risk of floods.
Celeste Soul, the Vice President of the OMM, also alluded to the DANA by highlighting the importance of early alert systems and not limiting itself to monitoring and prediction.
“It is also about understanding and communicating the risk, response and preparation. They are the four pillars in which we are trying to advance so that countries can be better prepared,” he emphasized.
A GREAT ESTE-EAST CONTRAST
One of the most striking aspects of the European climate last year is the relatively unusual distribution of the contrast of weather conditions, east-west instead of North-South, the axis that emphasizes most of the projections on the future of climate change.
Buontempo pointed out that it is difficult to determine whether the phenomenon is related to climate change itself, although it did not exclude the possibility that this this-west contrast is related to changes in atmospheric circulation.
One of the few positive aspects that emerge from the report is that the proportion of electricity generated from renewable energy in Europe also reached a historical maximum of almost half, standing for the first time in 45%.