The 2024 European State of the Climate (ESOTC) report has been published by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
It reports that Europe experienced its warmest year on record, with the second-highest number of heat stress days and tropical nights.
The area of Europe seeing days with temperatures below freezing is decreasing, and annual sea-surface temperature was the highest on record for the European region and the Mediterranean Sea.
Western Europe also saw a particularly wet year, and Europe experienced relatively widespread flooding.
ECMWF Director-General Florence Rabier said: “Under the leadership of the European Commission, ECMWF has been implementing the Copernicus Climate Change Service for more than 10 years and introduced the European State of the Climate report in 2018, which is a vital tool for monitoring climate change. We are pleased to have been publishing this report in collaboration with WMO since last year.”
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said: “This report highlights that Europe is the fastest-warming continent and is experiencing serious impacts from extreme weather and climate change. Every additional fraction of a degree of temperature rise matters because it accentuates the risks to our lives, to economies and to the planet. Adaptation is a must.”
East–west contrast
The ESOTC reports that in 2024 Europe experienced an east–west contrast in several climate variables: eastern areas were sunnier and warmer than average, while western areas were cloudier and wetter.
Eastern Europe saw warmer-than-average or record-high temperatures for much of the year, while southeastern Europe experienced its longest heatwave on record.
Meanwhile, temperatures in western Europe varied more, and the year was of one of the ten wettest for western Europe in the analysed period since 1950.
As shown in the map below, precipitation anomalies were particularly high in parts of western Europe, while parts of eastern Europe were much drier than average.
Flooding
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Europe is one of the regions with the largest projected increase in flood risk.
The ESOTC reports that the percentage of the river network which flooded during the year was the fifth largest in a 32-year record and the largest since 2013.
While 30% of the river network exceeded at least the ‘high’ flood threshold, 12% exceeded the ‘severe’ flood threshold.
The Arctic
According to the ESOTC, 2024 was the third-warmest year on record for the Arctic as a whole and the fourth warmest for Arctic land.
The annual average sea-surface and sea-ice temperature north of the Arctic Circle was the third warmest on record.
Further information
The ESOTC provides a lot more information on the climate in Europe in 2024, from facts about wildfires, snow and glaciers, lakes, winds, clouds and sunshine to renewable energy resources and resilience to climate extremes.
The complete ESOTC 2024 report has been published on the C3S website.