Europe’s record heatwave: does the continent have a new climate?

People get relief from a water hose on 25 June in Cologne, Germany, as a record-setting heatwave pummels the nation. Credit: Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty As the second unprecedented heatwave in Europe this year smashes temperature records, many people are asking the same questions: is this the new normal? Has Europe’s climate fundamentally changed? Oceans in Asia smash heat records — what it means for extreme weather Scientists who spoke to Nature say that a European heatwave lasting four or five days, with London approaching 40 °C, is an anomaly. “It’s nothing short of phenomenal,” notes Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. But researchers also say that Europeans can expect to see more of these events in the future as global warming continues. “Heatwaves are here to stay, until we turn the tap off to global emissions,” says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK. “They’re more frequent, they’re more intense and they’re lasting longer.” The risks are severe. In France — which recorded its hottest day ever this week, reaching 44.3 °C in the town of Pissos — at least 54 people have died from the heat or from drowning in waterways while trying to cool off. …