Eight European cities are about a degree hotter in summer than they were in the late 20th century, an analysis by Global News shows.
We looked at temperature records for Berlin, Paris, Malta, Athens, Gibraltar, Madrid, Rome and Toulouse. The places were selected for having very long temperature records. Berlin’s temperature records, for example, go back to 1880.
Rome, Madrid and Toulouse were more than a degree hotter in the 21st century in June, July and August than they were from 1980 to 2000. Berlin and Paris were just under a degree hotter, while Gibraltar, Athens and Malta were between .5 and .7 degrees hotter.
Europe is suffering a punishing heat wave that threatens to be as bad as 2003, when thousands of people, mostly elderly, died in France.
On Friday, France registered its highest temperature since records began. The mercury hit 45.1º in Villevieille, in the southerly Provence region, the weather forecaster Meteo France said, beating a record set in the 2003 heat wave.
The World Meteorological Organization said 2019 was on track to be among the world’s hottest years, and that 2015-2019 would then be the hottest five-year period on record.
This week’s weather is extreme, but in recent years, climate change has caused cities across Europe to be hotter in summer than they have been since weather records were first collected.
WATCH: Across Europe, from Berlin to Madrid, cities are getting hotter and hotter
Berlin
Berlin’s 2018 summer average of 20.4º was the highest recorded since records began in 1880.
Paris
Paris’s 2018 summer average of 22.4º was the second-highest since records began in 1900. The highest, 22.5º, was in 2003.
Madrid
Madrid’s data show only one summer average above 26º in the 120 years before the year 2000, but five in the 21st century. Some data is missing in the period of the Spanish Civil War.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar didn’t see a summer average above 24º before 2003. Since then, there have been another six. Records there have been kept since 1880. Some data after the 1940s is missing.
Athens
Patterns in Athens are less clear, though summer averages over 30º there were unknown before 1998. A few years are missing, corresponding to the Greek financial crisis and a political crisis in the early 1970s.
Malta
Like many other places in Europe, Malta shows a distinct increase starting in about 1980. The record summer average was in 2003.
Rome
Rome also shows an upward trend since about 1980. The three highest values are all in this century, in 2003, 2015 and 2017. Some early 21st-century data is missing.
Toulouse
Toulouse, in hot southern France, has been getting even hotter. Temperatures spiked in 2003.
With files from the Associated Press and Reuters