Warning – if travelling to Southern, Central & Eastern Europe

Writing in “The Conversation” in July 2023 Assistant Professors Emma Hill  and Ben Vivian from Coventry University report that Europe is currently in the midst of a heatwave. Italy, in particular, is expected to face blistering heat, with temperatures projected to reach 40℃ to 45℃. There’s even a chance that the current European temperature record of 48.8℃, set in Sicily in 2021, could be surpassed.

Searing temperatures have spread to other countries in southern and eastern Europe, including France, Spain, Poland and Greece. The heat will complicate the travel plans of those heading to popular holiday destinations across the region.

40°C summer temperatures could be common in UK by 2100

Writing in “The Conversation” in June 2020 Lisa Baldini Lecturer in Environmental Science, Teesside University stated that a stark warning about the kind of summer that could become routine in the UK by the end of this century has been issued in a new study by the country’s Met Office.

Using temperature data and climate model simulations, the researchers tested the likelihood of UK temperatures exceeding 30°C, 35°C, and 40°C each summer over the next 80 years. They found that if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, temperatures exceeding 40°C could be reached somewhere in the UK every three-and-a-half years by 2100.


Heatwave "completely obliterated the record for Europe's hottest ever June

Hannah Cloke Professor of Hydrology, University of Reading writing in “The Conversation” 2019 said “New analysis by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, shows that temperature records weren’t just broken for Europe – they were completely obliterated. The previous European record for June, set in 1999, was smashed to bits – not just by a fraction of a degree, but by a full 1.0℃.”

“It was also the hottest June (2019) the world has ever recorded, with the entire globe experiencing the warmest-ever June by 0.1℃.”

An ‘extreme’ heatwave has hit the seas around the UK and Ireland – 2023

Tom Rippeth Professor of Physical Oceanography, Bangor University writing in “The Conservation” in June 2023 reported that “One of the most severe marine heatwaves on the planet is taking place in the shallow seas around the UK and Ireland. That’s according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has labelled this a “Category 4” heatwave. Rarely used outside of the tropics, a cat 4 heatwave means “extreme” heat.”

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