The hottest month ever recorded in Western Europe was June 2026, the first month of summer, and it was also the second-hottest on a continental and global scale, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

According to data released today by the Copernicus Institute in its monthly newsletter, the average temperature in Western Europe reached 20.74° Celsius in June—in other words, it was 3° Celsius above normal values for the 1991–2020 period, breaking the previous record, which had been set just last June in 2025.

““Climate change is moving from being a future problem—abstract and statistical, about which we read in reports—to a tangible reality that is disrupting daily life,”, Samantha Berges, head of strategic issues at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (CEPMMT in French, ECMWF in English), an intergovernmental organization managed by the Copernicus Institute.

“Europe is warming much faster than the global average,” she noted, pointing to changes in atmospheric circulation as one of the causes.

“The changes observed in atmospheric circulation indicate that this phenomenon will become more frequent in Europe in the future. We will see more heat waves in a warmer world.

And they will be more intense, last longer, and affect more geographic regions,” he added, calling for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions “as soon as possible.”

In June, global temperatures exceeded the estimated pre-industrial average (1850–1900) by 1.39° Celsius, the institute’s report further states.

It was the second-warmest June on record, both globally and across Europe as a whole, Copernicus adds, as human-induced climate change and global warming continue.

Source: CNN.gr