The climate data for Europe for 2022 was collected by the Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, one of the six thematic information services of the European Union's Earth Observation programme.

According to this service, the year 2022 was the second warmest in Europe, after 2020, with the entire continent, with the exception of Iceland, registering above-average temperatures for the reference period 1991-2020.

Several countries in Western and Southern Europe, including Portugal, have had record temperatures since at least 1950.

Last year's summer was the hottest, after that of 2021. "Prolonged and intense" heat waves affected the North and West regions.

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, "the unusual heat in late spring and summer in Europe, combined with a lack of rain and dry soils, has brought dry conditions especially to the south and centre of the continent".

The drought has led to "unusually high fire activity in the southwest", especially in Spain and France, which, along with Germany and Slovenia, have had record greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires for at least 20 years.

The autumn of 2022 was the third warmest, after 2020 and 2006, with October registering record temperatures of almost 2ºC above average.

Last year's winter, when temperatures were around 1°C above average, was one of the top 10 warmest winters in Europe.

By contrast, spring temperatures were below average (for the 1991-2020 reference period).

The Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service follows the World Meteorological Organization's recommendation to use the most recent 30-year period (1991-2020) to calculate climate averages.


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