HEAT WAVE: People were bathing in a fountain outside the town hall of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada when the temperature reached 37 degrees on June 30. Foto: JASON FRANSON / The Canadian Press
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North America has just been through the warmest month of June since the measurements began. In Europe, June this year was the second warmest, according to EU researchers.
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The month we recently left behind was particularly hot in the west of the USA and Canada, as well as in Finland and west of Russia, the EU’s climate change service states Copernicus.
In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a heat record was set three days in a row in June. the region was 1.2 degrees higher than normal for the period 1991–2020.
– These heat waves do not occur in a vacuum. They occur in a world where the climate is getting warmer and they are more likely to occur, says climate scientist Julien Nicolas at Copernicus.
– What happened in Canada was a big jump compared to previous records. These heat records are a powerful reminder of how climate change is affecting our lives, says Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo.
The service makes monthly reports on, among other things, air temperatures and sea ice. Copernicus collects data from satellites, aircraft and weather stations worldwide.
Hot and dry
A heat record was also set in Helsinki. The Finnish capital has not experienced such a hot month in June since they started keeping statistics in 1844. Neither in Moscow have higher average temperatures been measured in June before. Also in northern Siberia, summer temperatures were extremely high.
“The heat waves in North America, Western Russia and northern Siberia are just the latest example of a trend that is expected to continue in the future and is related to global warming,” says climate scientist Nicolas.
In many places in Europe, it was also drier than normal in June. Parts of the United States, Canada, South America and China also received less rainfall than normal. In the western United States and Canada, several forest fires broke out.
Winter heat in New Zealand
Even worldwide, this year’s June is among the warmest ever recorded. Only three times before has June been warmer: 2016, 2019 and 2020. June 2021 shares fourth place with June 2018.
Recently, New Zealand also reported its warmest June ever. In what is a winter month in the southern hemisphere, the average temperature was 10.6 degrees Celsius, according to the state research institute NIWA. It is 2 degrees higher than the 30-year normal and 0.3 degrees higher than the previous record, which was set in 2003 and touched in 2014.
Antarctica, on the other hand, was colder than normal for the last 30 years.
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