June was the hottest on record for Western Europe, second hottest globally

Western Europe saw its hottest June on record this year as temperatures skyrocketed around the world last month, with blistering heat stoking wildfires and, at times, turning deadly across the continent and the United States, according to a new report by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.The C3S report also found that June 2026 was the second-hottest June ever recorded globally.Much of Western Europe experienced a historic heat wave during the second half of the month, breaking both monthly and all-time temperature records in several countries, the report said. Average temperature anomalies in Western Europe during a blistering June 2026 heat wave, relative to average temperatures for the region between 1991 and 2020. / Credit: C3S/ECMWFLast month’s heat emerged between an initial spell of extreme warmth that rolled through the region in May and another beginning to form in July. AdvertisementAdvertisement”The succession of heatwaves illustrates the growing challenge posed by increasingly frequent and intense heat extremes across Europe and the globe,” the report said.Samantha Burgess, a climate expert at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said in a statement that June’s conditions “underscored how profoundly the climate is changing” and acknowledged that record temperatures on land coincided with marine heat waves spread across sections of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.”Together, these records reflect a climate system continuing to accumulate heat,” Burgess said. “The result is increasingly intense heatwaves, a persistently warm ocean, and growing risks for people, ecosystems and infrastructure across Europe and beyond.”Drought accompanied the June heat, fueling massive wildfires in southern France that had burned through more than 11,000 acres and forced roughly 10,000 evacuations as of Monday, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. AdvertisementAdvertisementFrench Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu previously said dozens of people had died from drowning in France over the course of a single week in June, after desperately seeking reprieve from scorching triple-digit temperatures by swimming.Swimmers sunbathe on the banks of Paris …

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