2014 may become the hottest year on record for Europe

Posted on: 
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
  • 2014 is expected to be the hottest year on record in Europe. Initial estimates based on observations, reanalysis and forecasts show that the annual (January to December) mean temperature for Europe  will be 0.3˚C above the previous record of 2007. With the exception of 1989, the 10 warmest years on record all occurred since 2000.

 

  • Nineteen European countries are very likely to see their hottest year on record, including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

 

 

  • Based on the daily maps of the E-OBS data set, the somewhat disappointing summer (from the perspective of the tourists visiting southern Europe) in terms of summer days or the number of rainy days is made  explicit. But also the areas in Europe where the additional number of warm nights for 2014 has  been much higher than that of the number of warm day-times, which bears relevance to health; high  night-time temperatures have negative effects on human health. Finally, the excessive precipitation leading to the mid-May floodings in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is clear when analyzing the maximum 5-day precipitation sum; a parameter particularly relevant for hydrologists.

 

  • The observations required to put together a picture of climate variability in Europe requires thecooperation of the European National Meteorological Services. Data from their networks of meteorological stations is collected through the WMO RA VI Regional Climate Centre Network. Using this data, a  gridded data set of daily temperature and precipitation data is calculated, which was developedunder various EU projects, like ENSEMBLES en EURO4M. The use of this data set for Climate Services has been initiated under EUPORIAS.

 

  • Global warming significantly contributed to the high 2014 temperatures, according to new research from three independent climate science teams from the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia.