climate statistics<\/a> show. But this year still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe \u2014 there\u2019s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, this could be the hottest on record, scientists said.<\/p>\nLast month featured the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extrapolar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, according to the European climate agency Copernicus. That was partially fueled by developing El Ni\u00f1o conditions in the equatorial Pacific, the service said. The new average record for July is 69.73 degrees, which beat the 2023 record of 69.60.<\/p>\n
But last month\u2019s average surface air temperature globally was 62.42, making it only the joint second warmest July on record, tied with July 2024, Copernicus reported.<\/p>\n
Western Europe sets new record<\/p>\n
In Western Europe, meanwhile, the average temperature record for June-July hit 70.92, Copernicus said, toppling the 2022 record.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe; the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,\u201d said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
In France alone, heat wave alerts were issued for the first time on record in May, when more than half the country recorded new monthly temperature highs. The heat intensified in June, a period during which at least 5,700 more deaths than usual were recorded, according to France\u2019s public health agency. <\/p>\n
M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France said June 23 was the hottest day ever recorded in the country. Temperatures climbed as high as 111.7 in the southwest. <\/p>\n
Two other heat wave episodes were recorded in July, amplifying a historic wildfire in southwestern France that forced 220,000 people to flee their homes in one of the continent\u2019s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.<\/p>\n
Spain battles wildfires<\/p>\n
Temperatures were slightly cooler in the U.K. on Monday, but the country readied for its fifth heat wave in an exceptionally hot and dry summer, with half of England and all of Wales plunged into drought.<\/p>\n
Provisional data show that England and Wales had their driest July in records dating to 1836, with 19 counties of England receiving no rain for the entire month.<\/p>\n
The heat alert warns that significant impacts on health services, including a rise in deaths among older and vulnerable people, are likely.<\/p>\n
Two record-breaking heat waves in May and June led to more than 2,800 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n
An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach in southern England on Sunday, the latest of dozens of deaths recorded in open waters in recent months.<\/p>\n
In Spain, firefighters were battling multiple blazes, including one that broke out on Friday in T\u00edrig, Valencia, that has burned more than three square miles and has involved more than 300 personnel and 21 aircraft to combat it.<\/p>\n
A separate wildfire in the southern Huelva region had affected a similar sized area since it broke out on Thursday. While temperatures across Spain remained high, some parts of the country were expecting thunderstorms Monday afternoon that could bring strong gusts of wind.<\/p>\n
Dazio and Corbet write for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United Kingdom and France are bracing for the fifth heat wave of the season, adding to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2111,185,2847,1894,4,24182,90,17478,23116,33045,12149,57227,5516,16195,759,384],"class_list":["post-113451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-climate","tag-country","tag-death","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-extreme-heat","tag-france","tag-heat-wave","tag-july","tag-june","tag-may","tag-prolonged-drought","tag-record","tag-temperature","tag-u-k","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}