Fires devastated entire areas of Catalonia in the summer of 2025Image: keystone
Extreme weather
Record levels of forest fires, progressive melting of glaciers and 30 degrees in the Arctic Circle: a new climate report makes it clear how quickly Europe is changing.
04/29/2026, 09:4104/29/2026, 09:42
Anna-Lena Janzen / t-online
Europe clearly felt the effects of the climate crisis last year. At least 95 percent of the continent would have experienced above-average annual temperatures in 2025, according to the report on the state of the European climate presented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU Earth observation program Copernicus on Wednesday.
“Since 1980, Europe has warmed twice as fast as the global average,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo at a press conference. This makes it “the fastest warming continent” of all. Heat waves are becoming more frequent and severe, and in 2025 they will affect not only the Mediterranean region, but also the Arctic Circle.
Europe is currently warming faster than the other continents.Image: copernicus.eu
According to the report, in the northern European region of Fennoscandia, which includes Finland, Norway and Sweden, there was a three-week heat wave in July with temperatures of up to 30 degrees. Parts of Fennoscandia suffered from “severe heat stress” for almost two weeks, with the perceived temperature exceeding 32 degrees. Normally there are only up to two days of heat stress per year.
The heat waves
Temperatures were increased across the board in 2025.Image: copernicus.eu
In Turkey the thermometer climbed to 50 degrees in July, and in Greece 85 percent of the population was affected by extreme temperatures around 40 degrees. Large parts of western and southern Europe were hit by two strong heatwaves in June, including large parts of Spain, Portugal, France and southern parts of the UK.
According to the report, there was a third heat wave in Portugal, Spain and France in August. Great Britain, Norway and Iceland recorded their highest annual average temperature on record in 2025.
The forest fires
In August 2025, the forests burned in northern Spain.Image: keystone
The area destroyed by forest fires in Europe reached a record 1.034 million hectares. At least 21 people died in Europe last year due to storms and floods; a total of around 14,500 people were affected.
The glaciers
The glaciers are suffering.Image: copernicus.eu
As a result of high temperatures, European glaciers experienced a net loss of mass last year. Iceland experienced its second largest ice melt since 2005. The Greenland ice sheet lost 139 gigatons (139 billion tons) of ice. Snow cover in Europe was around 1.32 million square kilometers in March 2025, around 31 percent below average – the third lowest value since records began in 1983.
The seas
Sea temperatures have also increased significantly.Image: copernicus.eu
The annual average temperature at the sea surface in Europe reached a new high for the fourth consecutive year in 2025. A record 86 percent of Europe’s maritime areas experienced at least one day of severe marine heatwave. These have negative effects on the plants and animals of the sea.
This is where the water temperatures deviated most from the long-term average.Image: copernicus.eu
The water
In addition to heat, water is increasingly becoming a problem. 2025 was one of the driest years since soil moisture measurements began. At times, more than half of Europe was affected by drought. 70 percent of the rivers had less water than usual.
The combination of less precipitation and higher temperatures is putting pressure on rivers, soils and ecosystems – with consequences for agriculture, energy supplies and nature.
The biodiversity
Many species cannot keep up with these rapid changes.Image: EPA/KEYSTONE
Climate changes are also affecting biodiversity. Heat, fires and changing habitats put strain on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. At the same time, the report points to political progress: the EU has committed to renaturalizing at least 20 percent of its land and sea areas by 2030.
Samantha Burgess from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) said the report paints “a bleak picture”: climate change is no longer a threat of the future, but a reality of the present.
The renewables
Renewable energies are intended to reduce the dependence on oil as an energy source.Image: KEYSTONE
Global warming is primarily caused by the use of fossil fuels such as petroleum. According to the report, in 2025 more electricity from renewable energies was used than fossil fuels for the third year in a row. Renewables accounted for 46.4 percent of Europe’s electricity generation.
«But that is not enough. We have to accelerate this,” explained climate advisor to the European Commission’s climate service, Dusan Chrenek. In recent weeks, the fallout from the Iran war has brought widespread dependence on oil and gas back into focus.
According to the report, there are fears that the climate situation in Europe will deteriorate further this year. It is likely that the El Niño climate phenomenon will come into play again from the middle of the year, said WMO Secretary General Saulo. In 2024, El Niño contributed to global temperature records.
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