‘Distinctive’ warming: January temperatures 2.2 levels larger than common in Europe

'Exceptional' warming: January temperatures 2.2 degrees higher than average in Europe



CNN
 — 

Europe has experienced an exceptionally warm January, with average temperatures 2.2 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1990 to 2020 average, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The month started with a record-breaking heatwave, as New Year’s Day saw an alarming number of heat records fall across the continent, with at least eight countries experiencing their warmest-ever January day.

The climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks extreme temperatures across the globe, told CNN at the time that it was “the most extreme heat wave in European history.”

The Balkans, eastern Europe, Finland, northwest Russia and Svalbard, the Arctic archipelago off the coast of Norway, all experienced particularly high temperatures in January, according to Copernicus, which analyzes billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft…