We’re only a few weeks into summer, but a Tuesday report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that Europe has experienced their hottest June on record, with temperatures 2 degrees (Celsius) above normal.
The heatwave, caused by mass of hot air coming from the Sahara Desert, appears to be waning after five days of unseasonably high temperatures and record-breaking temperatures in Eastern Europe. This contributed to the month of June being about 1 degree Celsius warmer than the previous record set in 1999 and 1 degree Celsius higher than expected based on trends from recent decades.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service provides comprehensive climate information for the European Union and said that extreme weather is expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm due to climate change.
As the United States prepares to celebrate the 4th of July holiday, the country is also embarking on what the US National Centers for Environmental Information describes as the “hottest month of the year for the contiguous United States.” July is the second month of the North Atlantic hurricane season and the fourth most active month for tornadoes.
The most recent US climate report showed that May temperatures were about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit below the 20th century average at just 59.5 degrees Fahrenheit. During the first five months of 2019, the average temperature across America was 43.4 degrees Fahrenheit, just 0.1 degree Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, which could indicate that weather extremes in the United States are taking a different turn than those in Europe. This May was ranked the second wettest in the 125-year record period and second wettest of all months since January 1895.