The climatic ills that affect Spain are spreading to the rest of Europe, including those northern areas that seemed to be safe from heat and drought. The remote Svalbard archipelago, the closest inhabited place to the North Pole, suffered its hottest summer in 2022. Greenland experienced record melting ice and high summer temperatures caused ice loss from Alpine glaciers like never before.
The lack of rain had a full impact on the flow of European rivers: 63% carry less water than usual. And as if that were not enough, Europe recorded a record number of hours of sunshine and temperatures rose twice the world average, faster than on any other continent. This is the panorama drawn by the Copernicus Climate Change Service in its ‘Report on the State of the Climate in Europe in 2022’. One of the areas most affected by the lack of rain and high temperatures is the Region and the southeast of Spain in general.
The second warmest year in Europe and the hottest summer
Drought affected a large part of Europe during that year. It was also the second warmest year since 1950 and, in line with what happened in Spain, it suffered the hottest summer on record. These high temperatures were aggravated by extreme events such as intense heat waves, prolonged droughts and forest fires.
In 2022, the temperature rose 0.9ºC above the average for the reference period 1991-2020, and 1.4ºC in summer, which triggered days with thermal stress. Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, highlighted “alarming changes in our climate, including the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe.”
Number of days in which there was “strong heat stress”*
Data for the months of June, July and August 2022
*Universal Thermal Climate Index, or UTCI, between 32 and 38°C
Source: ERA5-HEAT, C3S/CEPMPM
Number of days in which there was “strong heat stress”*
Data for the months of June, July and August 2022
*Universal Thermal Climate Index, or UTCI, between 32 and 38°C
Source: ERA5-HEAT, C3S/CEPMPM
In the opinion of the Italian Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, “the report highlights the alarming changes in our climate, including the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe, marked by unprecedented marine heat waves in the Mediterranean Sea and record temperatures in Greenland.
Less rain in Europe and less ice on the glaciers of the Alps
During the winter of 2021-2022, much of Europe experienced up to 30 less days of snow than average. In spring, rainfall was below average for much of the continent, and in May the lowest rainfall since there are records for that month was recorded.
The lack of winter snow and high summer temperatures caused a record loss of ice from glaciers in the Alps, equivalent to more than 5 cubic kilometers of ice. To give us an idea, with that amount of ice the La Serena reservoir, the largest in Spain (3,200 cubic hectometres), could be filled 1.5 times.
Drought leaves its mark on European rivers
The drought (in terms of extension of affected area, 2022 was the driest year since 1991), hit soil moisture levels and river flow like never before. The annual soil moisture anomaly was the second lowest in the past 50 years, with above-average soil moisture conditions recorded only in isolated areas.
Monthly anomalies of the mean flow of rivers
Data from August 2022 compared to the average between 1991-2020, in %
Source: EFAS, Copernicus EMS/ECMWF
Monthly anomalies of the mean flow of rivers
Data from August 2022 compared to the average between 1991-2020
exceptionally high
remarkably tall
above average
below average
remarkably low
exceptionally low
Source: EFAS, Copernicus EMS/ECMWF
In addition, the flow of European rivers was the second lowest on record, which is the sixth consecutive year with flows below average. 63% of European rivers (practically two out of three) had flows below the average. Specifically, the rivers of the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe presented “exceptionally low” flows.
Record carbon emissions since 2007 due to fires
Copernicus detected a significant increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from forest fires in some European regions in the summer of 2022. Total emissions of this greenhouse gas were the highest since 2007. And in Spain (where some of the largest fires on the continent were recorded last summer), France, Germany and Slovenia, these emissions were the largest in at least the last 20 years.
High temperatures on the frigid islands of Noah’s Ark
The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet. And it is there where the effects of climate change are being felt the most. 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record in the Arctic. One of the hardest hit regions was Svalbard. This archipelago located halfway between Norway and the North Pole experienced the hottest summer ever recorded, with temperatures that exceeded the average by 2.5 °C, almost double the European average (1.4ºC above).
Very close to Longyearbyen, the northernmost city in the world and capital of Svalbard, is the World Seed Bank, a kind of vegetable Noah’s Ark built to safeguard a copy of all the edible plants in the world and face a hypothetical disaster. global. Its conservation depends to a large extent on the warehouse being covered with ice. That warehouse has already seen its natural ice framework disappear in recent summers.
Up to 8 degrees more in Greenland
Greenland is another example of climate change advancing steadily towards northernmost Europe. In 2022, the large island that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark experienced extreme weather conditions, including exceptional heat and rain in September, a time of year when snow is more common.
Average temperatures that month were up to 8°C above average (the highest on record), and the island was affected by three different heat waves. This combination caused record melting, affecting at least 23% of the ice sheet at the peak of the first wave.
The highest amount of solar radiation in 40 years
The report on the State of the Climate in Europe also states that Europe received the highest amount of solar radiation on the surface in the last 40 years. As a result, solar PV generation potential was above average across most of the continent. But there is no evil that does not come for good. In relation to this data, Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of Copernicus, highlighted that renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind energy, are essential “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change”.
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